Underland (book)

Underland: A Deep Time Journey is a book by Robert Macfarlane and the sequel to The Old Ways: A Journey on Foot. Initially published in English on 2 May 2019 by Hamish Hamilton in the UK and on 4 June 2019 by W. W. Norton & Company in the US, the book has been translated into over a dozen languages. An audiobook, read by Matthew Waterson, was also released in June 2019 by HighBridge Audio.

The book is a descriptive journey by the author of different subterranean landscapes that he explores, including caving in the Mendip Hills, the Catacombs of Paris, the Karst Plateau, an underground laboratory for detecting evidence of dark matter, and descending into a glacier's moulin among other explorations. These underground spaces represent "burial and unburial and deep time." Through these underground journeys the book sheds light on the impacts and consequences of human actions within the Anthropocene geological epoch.

Reception
Upon release, Underland was generally well-received. According to Book Marks, the book received "rave" reviews based on 35 critic reviews with 26 being "rave" and 7 being "positive" and 2 being "mixed". In Books in the Media, a site that aggregates critic reviews of books, the book received a (4.22 out of 5) from the site which was based on 15 critic reviews.

The book has received awards and honours, including being a Sunday Times, New York Times, and Los Angeles Times bestseller. It is a 2020 American Library Association Notable Book, and has won The 2019 National Outdoor Book Award for Natural History Literature, The 2019 Wainwright Prize for UK Nature Writing, and was named the 2020 Stanford Dolman Travel Book of the Year at the Edward Stanford Travel Writing Awards.