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For fans of quirky, obsessive narrative histories, such as Confederates in the Attic and How Things Work , Underground explores the history, science, architecture, and mythology of the subterranean landscape and in the process reengineers our relationship with the worlds beneath our feet.

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´A mesmerizingly fascinating tale, one astonishing adventure after another. I could not stop reading this beautifully written book.´ Michael Finkel, author of The Stranger in the Woods
´A unique history of a culturally and scientifically important netherworld most people barely know exists.´ Booklist
´An unusual and intriguing travel book ... A vivid illumination of the dark and an effective evocation of its profound mystery.´ Kirkus (starred review)

When Will Hunt was sixteen years old, he discovered an abandoned tunnel that ran beneath his house in Providence, Rhode Island. His first tunnel trips inspired a lifelong fascination with exploring underground worlds , from the derelict subway stations and sewers of New York City to sacred caves , catacombs , tombs , bunkers and ancient underground cities in more than twenty countries around the world. Underground is both a personal exploration of Hunt´s obsession and a panoramic study of how we are all connected to the underground, how caves and other dark hollows have frightened and enchanted us through the ages.

In a narrative spanning continents and epochs , Hunt follows a cast of subterraneaphiles who have dedicated themselves to investigating underground worlds. He tracks the origins of life with a team of NASA microbiologists a mile beneath the Black Hills , camps out for three days with urban explorers in the catacombs and sewers of Paris , descends with an Aboriginal family into a 35,000-year-old mine in the Australian outback , and glimpses a sacred sculpture moulded by Paleolithic artists in the depths of a cave in the Pyrenees .

Each adventure is woven with findings in mythology and anthropology, natural history and neuroscience, literature and philosophy - this is a graceful meditation on the allure of darkness, the power of mystery, and our eternal desire to connect with what we cannot see.

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´A thrilling journey ... Underground will change the way you see the ground beneath your feet.´ The Herald

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Hunt, Will
Will Hunt´s writing, photography and audio storytelling have appeared in The Economist, The Paris Review, Discover, Audible Originals,and Outside, among other places. A recipient of grants and fellowships from the Thomas J. Watson Foundation, the New York Foundation for the Arts, the Bread Loaf Writer´s Conference, and The Macdowell Colony, he is currently a visiting scholar at the NYU Institute for Public Knowledge. Underground is his first book.

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