Underjungle - by James Sturz (Hardcover)

About the Book

"Deep below the surface, our world is cold, dark and content. Colors are fickle. Red disappears first as you descend, followed by the yellow of the sun. The hundred shades of blue last the longest, but eventually there is only black-and the candied ooze of the ocean floor. In Underjungle, an intelligent life form known as Yc exists in the depths of the oceans, an apex predator among most fish. Long ago, this species fractured from a single historical group into seven distinct tribes, each with their own dialect and cultural idiosyncrasies. Now, one tribe, the Gjala, has stumbled across a most intriguing and unusual object: the sunken corpse of a man. As news travels across the ocean, and the other tribes converge to investigate, the consequences and questions raised will reverberate for generations to come. Underjungle asks for the reader to give themself up to another world; to step outside not just of themselves, but of their species. A broad metaphysical story of fantastical world-building from accomplished journalist and nature writer James Sturz, Underjungle is a lyrical tale of love and war, encompassing environment, science, art, philosophy, and grief-as deep and surprising as life on the sea floor, which is where much of this story is set. Buoyed by humor and tinged with the unshakeable melancholy of loss is the existential question that forever ties the novel to our human experience: what is our purpose?"--

Book Synopsis

"Strange, beautiful, and brilliant!" --Sy Montgomery, author of The Soul of an Octopus

2023 FOREWORD INDIES FINALIST FOR FANTASY

Deep below the surface, our world is cold, dark and content. Colors are fickle. Red disappears first as you descend, followed by the yellow of the sun. The hundred shades of blue last the longest, but eventually there is only black--and the candied ooze of the ocean floor...

In Underjungle, an intelligent life form known as the yc exist in the ocean's depths, an apex predator among most fish. Long ago, this species fractured from a single group into seven distinct tribes, each with their own dialect and cultural idiosyncrasies. Now, one tribe, the Gjala, has stumbled across a most intriguing and unusual object: a sunken corpse. As news travels across the ocean, and the other tribes converge to investigate, the consequences and questions raised will reverberate for generations to come.

Underjungle asks readers to give themselves up to another world: to step outside not just of themselves, but of their species. A broad metaphysical story of fantastical world-building from accomplished journalist and nature writer James Sturz, Underjungle is a lyrical tale of love and war, encompassing the marine environment, science, art, philosophy and grief--as deep and surprising as life on the seafloor, where much of this story is set.

Buoyed by humor and tinged with the unshakeable melancholy of loss is the existential question that forever ties the novel to our human experience: what is our purpose?

Review Quotes

"Underjungle is a wondrously beautiful tale told in language that made me feel I was breathing the atmosphere of an exotic and miraculous planet. Of course, I was. But the most amazing thing is that, the whole time, I was breathing underwater." --Carl Safina, author of Song for the Blue Ocean and Beyond Words

"Underjungle isn't just a novel. It's a symphonic meditation on existence, heartache, and underwater worlds beyond our imaginings. In prose both witty and elegiac, Sturz's finned narrator plunges readers into the ocean's depths, evoking such vivid tastes, textures, and scents that they may find themselves reluctant to come up for air." --Jennifer Steil, author of Exile Music and The Ambassador's Wife

"An otherworldly romance full of poetry and wisdom. I love this novel--a strange, beautiful, and wholly original book. To read James Sturz's Underjungle is to be enchanted." --Iris Smyles, author of Droll Tales

"James Sturz has written a strange and beautiful book that defies the usual categories. It's a love story, a war story, an undersea epic and a meditation on the human hand. By the time you finish it you will know a lot more about what is happening in the sea around us--which may be the most important story of our time." --John Benditt, author of The Boatmaker

"Luminous, strange, thought-provoking and as profound as the seas, the pelagic brilliance of Underjungle cannot be overstated. This is the brilliant novel Prince Namor would have written had he had more poetry classes." --Junot Díaz, author of This is How You Lose Her

"Not many of us would have the audacity to write a novel where the only human character is a corpse decomposing on the ocean floor, but in Underjungle James Sturz has met this challenge in dazzling fashion. To get a more intimate view of the world under the waves you'd probably have to become fish food yourself, so instead I recommend this profound and unclassifiable novel, a mind-expanding Aeneid of the seas." --Ned Beauman, author of Venomous Lumpsucker and Boxer, Beetle


"This love song to the unseen life of the ocean is a thing of passion, beauty, and shimmering fish. Deep inside James Sturz's singular and engaging story, there's a message for us who dwell on land: Not just to take care of the ocean, but of one another as well." --Daphne Merkin, author of 22 Minutes of Unconditional Love

"James Sturz is the Jacques Cousteau of storytelling. In Underjungle, he has crafted a magical, mystical, almost mythological narrative unlike anything else I know, an undersea morality tale for our hurt kind struggling through this postlapsarian mess we made." --William Giraldi, author of Hold the Dark and Busy Monsters

"Gorgeously weird and weirdly gorgeous. Underjungle is a mesmerizing dissection of the best and worst of us, set in an undersea world untouched by humanity, so vividly and masterfully drawn that it feels both foreign and familiar. I have never read anything quite like it. Cleverly poetic, sometimes uncomfortable, and occasionally hilarious, but ultimately an ode to the wonders of depths unexplored." --Shelby Van Pelt, author of Remarkably Bright Creatures

"So, so gorgeously strange, told by a sea creature, and set completely underwater, Underjungle is about all the big issues--love, loss, family, war--but it's also about how all the oceans, like all of us, are connected and the dangers when we forget that. It's written in prose as startlingly beautiful as the discovery of a real pearl shimmering in an oyster. A love letter to our oceans, Underjungle glints with humor and heart." --Caroline Leavitt, New York Times Bestselling author of With or Without You

"Underjungle is poetry, fantasy, love, war, mystery and philosophy. This book will make you think about the ocean in ways you haven't before, and that might just make you want to protect it. I've dived with James, and I'm pleased to see that he has created this fascinating and complex story about the ocean and our deep connection to it." --Jean-Michel Cousteau, Ocean Futures Society