RaveThe New York Times Book ReviewYou know a book has entered your bloodstream when the ground beneath your feet, once viewed as bedrock, suddenly becomes a roof to unknown worlds below ... If writing books is a form of making maps to guide us through new intellectual territory, Macfarlane is a cartographer of the first order ... Macfarlane’s writing is muscular, meticulously researched and lyrical, placing him in the lineage of Peter Matthiessen, Gretel Ehrlich and Barry Lopez. What distinguishes his work is his beginner’s mind, his lack of self-consciousness, his physical pursuit of unlearning what he has been taught by received information ... Underland is a book of dares. Macfarlane dares to go deep into earth’s unseen world and illuminate what we not only shy away from but what we don’t even know exists ... Underland is a portal of light in dark times. I needed this book of beauty below to balance the pain we’re witnessing aboveground.
