Undersurface — Mitch Cullin

From acclaimed author Mitch Cullin, whose previous books have been described by The New York Times as “brilliant and beautiful . . . rhythmic and telling,” comes Undersurface, a chilling page-turner that recalls Alfred Hitchcock and novelist Kobo Abe at his most existential. Probing the complex relationship between outward appearances and inward states of profound want, it is a story that at turns is intriguing and sordid, poetic and allusive, told in a compact yet intense manner, offering a distinctive take on a society far more complicated than what Americans often gather from their televisions and newspaper headlines.

Based roughly on real events, this fictional account follows its oblique protagonist as he moves through the loitering subculture found within public toilets and pornographic arcades, and, in the process, finds himself losing everything he values, including his own grip on reality.

A mystery of both memory and mistaken identity, Undersurface is a starkly written, haunting novel about double lives, compulsion, and human sexuality, where secret desires lead to devastating circumstances.

As the carefully crafted plot twists in ever suspenseful directions, we are drawn toward a startling, possibly unavoidable conclusion, one that resonates long after the book has been set aside.

Complemented by the richly evocative imagery of artist Peter I. Chang, Mitch Cullin has once again written a subtly detailed, affecting, provocative story that explores the sometimes harsh days of a man on the run, the enigmatic pull of the taboo, and the nature of transient life amongst a growing suburban culture.