In The Underworld, Kevin Canty tells a story that begins with a disastrous fire inspired by a true incident in an isolated silver mining town in Idaho in the 1970s. Everyone in town had a friend, a lover, a brother, a husband killed in the mine. The Underworld imagines the lives of a handful of survivors and their loved ones as they struggle to come to terms with the loss: Jordan, a young widow with twin children; David, a college student trying to make a life for himself in another town; and Lionel, a lifelong hard-rock miner. It's a tough, hard-working, hard-drinking town, a town of whores and priests and bar fights, but nobody's tough enough to get through this undamaged. A powerful and unforgettable tale about small-town lives and the healing power of love in the midst of suffering.

 

Kevin Canty is the author of four novels and three short story collections and has been published in The New Yorker, Esquire, GQ, and the New York Times Magazine. He currently teaches at the University of Montana in Missoula.