Underland

By reading this koob, you will learn the secrets of the world beneath our feet.

You will also discover:

• Why explorers risk life and limb to map the underworld

• What ice can teach us about the world before homo sapiens

• How people—and plants—communicate underground

• How humans are changing the planet from the bottom up, and

• Why dark places, dangerous products, and deep time pose futurologists a serious challenge.

In the last of a series of five books “deep mapping” the world layer by layer, Robert Macfarlane reaches his final frontier: underground. From caves to catacombs, the “underland” elicits fear and fascination in equal measure. Scientists, explorers, artists, criminals, and ordinary people all go underground for different reasons. Subterranean places are deep, dark, and dangerous. They may hold the secret to our salvation—or they may destroy us. Are you ready to visit the underland?