Underland

Robert Macfarlane is a magician with words. In Underland he shows us how to see in the dark. His writing is like a vortex...once caught, you're pulled deeper and deeper with each page. -- Andrea Wulf I began this book with the thrill of realizing that Robert Macfarlane has over the years and books charted the heights and breadth of human travel before plumbing the depths in this exquisite book about what lies beneath. I ended it with wonder at his ability to evoke so vividly places to which I and probably you will never go, and the sense of vast scale they restore to us at a time when it can feel like the world has shrunken around us. -- Rebecca Solnit Underland is a devastating act of witness, a clear, cogent, lyrical examination of the darknesses invisible beneath our feet, both geographical and eschatological; it is blazingly vivid about the terror and grandeur of both the natural world and the consequences of human destructiveness upon the Earth. But the book's great power comes from Robert Macfarlane's deliberate turn away from despair and a simple narrative of human evildoing, and toward a more deliberate, loving, and luminous sense of awe. -- Lauren Groff Robert Macfarlane writes of his astonishing subterranean explorations with such wondrous, indelible power that you remember what he sees as if you saw it yourself. Underland is a profound reckoning with humankind's self-imperiled position in nature's eternal order. At once thrilling and soulful, raw and erudite, it is a book of revelations. -- Philip Gourevitch Robert Macfarlane has long provided us with some of the most distinctive and sensitive thinking about how humans understand and experience the terrestrial world. In turning his attention to the subterranean in Underland, he has delivered his most urgent, universal, and expansive book yet. -- Francisco Cantu Beautifully written and wise, this haunting book is a treasure by one of earth's keenest celebrants. Its unique spell is irresistible. -- Diane Ackerman Robert Macfarlane's writing reminds us of the astonishing variety of things you can see when you go at walking speed, and of how strange and rich the world is. -- Philip Pullman An eye-opening, lyrical, and even moving exploration. -- Publishers Weekly (starred review) A sterling book. -- Library Journal (starred review) A gifted storyteller and poetic writer...Wherever [Macfarlane] travels, he enhances our sense of wonder. -- Kirkus Reviews (starred review) Astonishing...A powerful, epic journey for anyone wondering about the world below and all around us and, perhaps more important, for those who aren't. -- Booklist (starred review) The king of the new nature writers returns with one of the year's most anticipated books. -- The Guardian Profound in every sense of the word. -- Richard Powers