Underland

by Robert Macfarlane

Robert Macfarlane descends — into caves, catacombs, nuclear waste repositories, and the deep roots of glaciers — to write this extraordinary meditation on what lies beneath the surface of the world and of human time. Structuring the book around three ancient functions of the underland (keeping safe, disposing of the dead, reading the past), Macfarlane weaves geology, mythology, ecology, and personal adventure into prose of rare lyrical power. The book confronts deep time and climate grief without flinching. It is among the most beautiful and serious works of nature writing published in the twenty-first century.