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Underground
A literary thriller in which, in a sense, the London Underground becomes the central character. Someone is pushing women under trains, and a Polish immigrant who works at a north London station - a loner with a complicated past and a secret fear of the dark - is determined to stop the killings.
208 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1999
6 people are currently reading
89 people want to read
About the author
Tobias Hill
22 books26 followersTobias Hill was an award-winning English poet, essayist, writer of short stories and novelist.
He was born in Kentish Town, north London, to parents of German Jewish and English extraction: his maternal grandfather was the brother of Gottfried Bermann, confidant of Thomas Mann and, as owner of S. Fischer Verlag, German literature's leading publisher-in-exile during the Second World War. Hill was educated at Hampstead School, a comprehensive institution, and Sussex University.
Hill first came to attention in the 1990s as a poet and author of short stories, with early work appearing in magazines such as The Frogmore Papers: he later became established as a novelist. As a poet Hill published four collections, Year of the Dog (1995), Midnight in the City of Clocks (1996), influenced by his experience of life in Japan, Zoo (1998) and Nocturne in Chrome & Sunset Yellow (2006): the last of these was described by The Guardian as "A vital, luminous collection...it is rare to come across a collection of poetry that you know with certainty you will still be reading years from now, but for me, this is such a book."
Hill's only collection of short stories, Skin (1997), was serialized on BBC Radio 4, was shortlisted for the 1998 John Llewellyn Rhys/Mail on Sunday Prize, and won the International PEN/Macmillan Silver Pen Award.
From Wikipedia
He was born in Kentish Town, north London, to parents of German Jewish and English extraction: his maternal grandfather was the brother of Gottfried Bermann, confidant of Thomas Mann and, as owner of S. Fischer Verlag, German literature's leading publisher-in-exile during the Second World War. Hill was educated at Hampstead School, a comprehensive institution, and Sussex University.
Hill first came to attention in the 1990s as a poet and author of short stories, with early work appearing in magazines such as The Frogmore Papers: he later became established as a novelist. As a poet Hill published four collections, Year of the Dog (1995), Midnight in the City of Clocks (1996), influenced by his experience of life in Japan, Zoo (1998) and Nocturne in Chrome & Sunset Yellow (2006): the last of these was described by The Guardian as "A vital, luminous collection...it is rare to come across a collection of poetry that you know with certainty you will still be reading years from now, but for me, this is such a book."
Hill's only collection of short stories, Skin (1997), was serialized on BBC Radio 4, was shortlisted for the 1998 John Llewellyn Rhys/Mail on Sunday Prize, and won the International PEN/Macmillan Silver Pen Award.
From Wikipedia
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
January 1, 2025
Ok I will admit that I have a weakness for stories based in and around London - i think it was down to the time I lived just outside it, I saw a lot of London in my free time but I know there is so much more out there - so any books which help illuminate that world I am fascinated with, and this was one of them - based in and around the London Underground.
Now this book was new to me and was a total gamble when I decided to read it - the book has some great reviews and I will say now it was not to my taste - the story the characters were fine - although looking back, the back story of Casimir, though helpful in colouring the person we are following - does seem to have every plot device and defect going (from a mentally unstable mother to a father who committed an unspeakable act and so "lost" his son).
Tobias Hill has the ability to create some amazing and vivid scenes but I just didnt feel the story caught my attention or interest. The main story didnt really seem to capture me and almost seemed to be secondary to other events and stories going on. So was it a redemption story, a crime story, story of discovery - I am not sure, none of them seemed strong enough to say it was one particular and together they didnt feel woven close enough to be called all three.
Now I know that not every book is suitable for everyone and I guess with my reading choices I am probably in the minority but I did feel that this book could have been more, after all I didnt really connect with Casimir and emphasise with the man he was just another name in the story and for me I need to at least try and see the story from the protagonists perspective however right or wrong or skewed it is. I know that Tobias Hill is an accomplished author and I can see that from the atmospheric scenes he has created I am just not sure if that alone was enough to hold my interest.
Now this book was new to me and was a total gamble when I decided to read it - the book has some great reviews and I will say now it was not to my taste - the story the characters were fine - although looking back, the back story of Casimir, though helpful in colouring the person we are following - does seem to have every plot device and defect going (from a mentally unstable mother to a father who committed an unspeakable act and so "lost" his son).
Tobias Hill has the ability to create some amazing and vivid scenes but I just didnt feel the story caught my attention or interest. The main story didnt really seem to capture me and almost seemed to be secondary to other events and stories going on. So was it a redemption story, a crime story, story of discovery - I am not sure, none of them seemed strong enough to say it was one particular and together they didnt feel woven close enough to be called all three.
Now I know that not every book is suitable for everyone and I guess with my reading choices I am probably in the minority but I did feel that this book could have been more, after all I didnt really connect with Casimir and emphasise with the man he was just another name in the story and for me I need to at least try and see the story from the protagonists perspective however right or wrong or skewed it is. I know that Tobias Hill is an accomplished author and I can see that from the atmospheric scenes he has created I am just not sure if that alone was enough to hold my interest.
January 20, 2013
I picked this up while visiting London probably 10+ years ago, largely based on its outstanding cover design and it's lingered on my shelves unread until last week. Like the cover, it's richly atmospheric and claustrophobic, but to call it a "thriller" (as the jacket copy does), is somewhat misleading. The book revolves around Casimir, a Polish immigrant who has been living in London for about eight years. The chapters alternate between the story of his present life working in the London Underground as a kind of tunnel and infrastructure inspector, and the story of his childhood in Poland. It's intimated that something happened in his childhood in the 1960s that led him to leave Poland completely behind, sending remittances to support his father, whom he will never forgive for some mysterious transgression.
In the present, he lives in a nearly empty room more akin to jail cell than a home, and keeps entirely to himself, with no friends or even acquaintances to speak of. However, when someone pushes a woman under a train, he takes an interest, an interest that leads him into the path of a beguiling homeless woman who may be living in the Underground, and might be insane. The story of these two desperate souls trying to connect at some level with each other feels a little too self-conscious, sort of like an indie film that's trying a bit too hard to milk the theme of beauty/love in a grim world. However, the depiction of the physical space of the Underground is captivating -- even as I struggled at times to orient myself, the feeling of the place oozes from the pages.
Meanwhile, the storyline of his childhood in Poland has a number of memorable scenes, but feels very much of a type of "growing up behind the Iron Curtain" tale. There's the childhood romance, a secret cave in the woods, a fall through the ice, a drunken father who is a smuggler/speculator, the unstable mother, the dark secrets lurking in the ashes of World War II. It's all well-told, and provides a stark contrast with the present-day chapters, but they do sit uneasily next to each other. I suppose in the end, I left feeling that the author did an excellent job of creating vivid settings and evoking mood, but the storytelling itself wasn't too my taste.
In the present, he lives in a nearly empty room more akin to jail cell than a home, and keeps entirely to himself, with no friends or even acquaintances to speak of. However, when someone pushes a woman under a train, he takes an interest, an interest that leads him into the path of a beguiling homeless woman who may be living in the Underground, and might be insane. The story of these two desperate souls trying to connect at some level with each other feels a little too self-conscious, sort of like an indie film that's trying a bit too hard to milk the theme of beauty/love in a grim world. However, the depiction of the physical space of the Underground is captivating -- even as I struggled at times to orient myself, the feeling of the place oozes from the pages.
Meanwhile, the storyline of his childhood in Poland has a number of memorable scenes, but feels very much of a type of "growing up behind the Iron Curtain" tale. There's the childhood romance, a secret cave in the woods, a fall through the ice, a drunken father who is a smuggler/speculator, the unstable mother, the dark secrets lurking in the ashes of World War II. It's all well-told, and provides a stark contrast with the present-day chapters, but they do sit uneasily next to each other. I suppose in the end, I left feeling that the author did an excellent job of creating vivid settings and evoking mood, but the storytelling itself wasn't too my taste.
July 6, 2020
2.5★
Tobias Hill’s Underground doesn’t really live up to its ‘thriller’ blurb unless you remove the first 10 of its 13 chapters. The decision to have every other chapter be in the form of a flashback for its main character does nothing other than break up a ‘Beautifully paced and genuinely exciting’ novel. I get that character backgrounds are essential, but not to the point of negating a book’s potential flow. Having said that Hill’s descriptive writing is pretty flawless and if you are at all familiar with London’s underground you will no doubt be in awe of the author’s ability to set a scene.
Tobias Hill’s Underground doesn’t really live up to its ‘thriller’ blurb unless you remove the first 10 of its 13 chapters. The decision to have every other chapter be in the form of a flashback for its main character does nothing other than break up a ‘Beautifully paced and genuinely exciting’ novel. I get that character backgrounds are essential, but not to the point of negating a book’s potential flow. Having said that Hill’s descriptive writing is pretty flawless and if you are at all familiar with London’s underground you will no doubt be in awe of the author’s ability to set a scene.
January 9, 2012
I'm fascinated by stories that take place underground. This book, however, I didn't care much for. I have to say that the best thing about it to me was the cover art, which is just great, terrific design. It's tough to review this book, because the writing was actually quite good, very lyrical and vivid, yet somehow unmoving and not engaging. The story was slow paced, kinda dragging, the main character was well developed and in contrast to the rest of them, but I don't think I cared about any of them...like I said, not engaging somehow. Although this can be categorized as a thriller, I would definitely say it's not, It's a novel with some suspense in it. Main character's polish past and upbringing was probably the best part. Don't know if I'd recommend this one just because ultimately it bored me.
September 7, 2010
Well, I kind of quick-read that one. In my alice universe that particular work doesn't seem so very cheerful and the end isn't quite revealing either.
I really don't want to draw conclusions based on two books, but since I read "The Love of Stones" as well, it seems to be his style of writing to use gloomy, somehow eerie settings at times. Hmm, for those who like that, it's probably a good read, I don't so much, though.
I really don't want to draw conclusions based on two books, but since I read "The Love of Stones" as well, it seems to be his style of writing to use gloomy, somehow eerie settings at times. Hmm, for those who like that, it's probably a good read, I don't so much, though.
April 17, 2015
The blurb on the book describes this as a fast-paced thriller, it isn't. But it is an enjoyable mystery set in the murky world of the underground with flashbacks to the main characters Polish childhood. Well I say enjoyable but it is a very dark tale and sometimes the detail of the workings of the Underground system tend to slow the plot up. But a good read.
April 23, 2008
The rollover on the two-star rating says, 'It was OK', and that's pretty much all I've got to say. Oh, the main character is nice, quite engaging. All other characters pretty two-dimensional, making it hard to really care what happens, which is a pity in a book that is primarily a thriller.
May 26, 2016
Considering I love the London Underground, it's a shame that I found this 'thriller' so dull and impenetrable.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews