120,000+ Books, Games & Puzzles in-stock ๐Ÿ‡ณ๐Ÿ‡ฟ

Enjoy overnight delivery from our 100% NZ-owned independent bookstore ๐Ÿš€

Underworld

Book Hero Magic crafted this summary to help describe this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Summary
Underworld opens with a legendary 1951 baseball game where the Shot Heard Round the World intersects with news of the Soviet Unionโ€™s first hydrogen bomb test. The baseball, worn and passed between characters, threads through decades of American historyโ€”the Cold War, Civil Rights Movement, Vietnam protestsโ€”revealing the lives of Nick Shay, Klara Sax, and others. This sweeping narrative captures the intimate and complex histories of individuals shaped by the nationโ€™s past.
Read More
Format: Paperback / softback
$6100

International Supplier

This title is in-stock with overseas suppliers. While it is not available locally, we fly books in weekly from the US and UK to our Auckland warehouse for immediate dispatch.

AVAILABLE WITH SUPPLIER Ships from our Auckland warehouse within 2-3 weeks

Found a better price? Request a price match

Book Hero Magic created this recommendation. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! IS THIS YOUR NEXT READ?

Ideal for readers interested in complex historical fiction that blends personal stories with significant American events across the mid-20th century.

Book Hero thinking about your next read

A gloriously fused history of the past 50 years that offers a key to understanding American culture, "Underworld" moves through the nation's diverse landscapes, analyzing the mesmerizing interplay between two central characters, and "(offering) us another history of ourselves, the unofficial underground moments" (Michael Ondaatje). A National Book Award Finalist.

Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Description

Finalist for the Pulitzer Prize

Finalist for the National Book Award

Finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award

Winner of the Howell's Medal of the American Academy of Arts and Letters

"A great American novel" (San Francisco Chronicle) that spans five decades of American history, following the intimate lives of the men and women who lived through them.

It begins with a moment of legend: the 1951 baseball game between the New York Giants and the Brooklyn Dodgers in which the winning homerun known as the Shot Heard Round the World coincides with news of the Soviet Union's first hydrogen bomb test.

The baseball itself, scuffed and passed from hand to hand, becomes the thread that weaves an astonishing tapestry that spans the Cold War, the Civil Rights Movement, Vietnam protests, and beyond, telling the story of Nick Shay, Klara Sax, and the hidden histories of a nation both haunted and illuminated by its past.

Sweeping yet intimate, Underworld is an astonishing story of men and women brought together and torn apart against the backdrop of half a century of American history.

Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9780684848150

Publisher: Prentice Hall (a Pearson Education company)

Format: Paperback / softback

Date Published: 27 July 1998

Country: United Kingdom

Imprint: Prentice Hall & IBD

Audience: General / adult

DIMENSIONS

Width: 135.0mm

Height: 204.0mm

Weight: 830g

Pages: 848

About the Author

Don DeLillo is the author of seventeen novels including Underworld, Zero K, Libra, and White Noise, and the story collection The Angel Esmeralda, a finalist for the Story Prize and the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction. He has also written plays and essays. He has won the National Book Award, the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction, the PEN/Saul Bellow Award, the Jerusalem Prize for his complete body of work, the William Dean Howells Medal from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and, in 2025, the Academy's Gold Medal for Fiction. DeLillo has been awarded the Library of Congress Prize for American Fiction and the National Book Foundation's Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters.

Also by Don DeLillo

View all
  • Libra
    Libra by Don DeLillo, now available as a Penguin Essential, delves deep into the heart of America's most gripping historical momentโ€”the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Set against the backdrop of Dealey Plaza in Dallas, Texas, on Friday, November 22, 1963, at 12:30 PM, the narrative captures the instant the nation was plunged into turmoil and psychosis. Shots ring...
    Paperback
    $2300
    Elsewhere:
    $2600
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • Americana
    He's a writer who, once you read him, makes you want to read everything he's done - Martin Amis, Sunday Times Prosperous, good-looking, and empty inside, 28-year-old advertising executive David Bell appears on the surface to have everything. But he is a man on the brink of losing his sanity. Trapped in a Manhattan office with soulless sycophants as his...
    Paperback
    $2400
    Elsewhere:
    $2600
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • Great Jones Street
    Bucky Wunderlick is a rock and roll icon at the height of his career, but fame and fortune have left him feeling hollow and disillusioned. Seeking refuge from the relentless pressures of celebrity culture, he abruptly abandons his band mid-tour and retreats to a sparse, unfurnished apartment on Great Jones Street in New York City. This cryptic disappearance ignites a...
    Paperback
    $2499
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • White Noise
    CELEBRATING 50 YEARS OF PICADOR BOOKS How strange it is. We have these deep terrible lingering fears about ourselves and the people we love. Yet we walk around, talk to people, eat and drink. We manage to function. The feelings are deep and real. Shouldn't they paralyse us? Jack Gladney is the creator and chairman of Hitler studies at the...
    Paperback
    $2799
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • White Noise
    NATIONAL BOOK AWARD WINNER โ€ข An โ€œeerie, brilliant, and touchingโ€ (The New York Times) modern classic about mass culture and the numbing effects of technology. โ€œTremendously funny . . . A stunning performance from one of our most intelligent novelists.โ€ โ€”The New Republic The inspiration for the award-winning major motion picture starring Adam Driver and Greta Gerwig White Noise follows...
    Paperback
    $5000
    Available
    Ships in 2-3 weeks
  • Mao II
    Winner of the PEN/Faulkner Award, Mao II is the work of an ingenious writer at the height of his powers. Bill Gray, a famous, reclusive novelist, emerges from his isolation when he becomes the key figure in an event staged to force the release of a poet hostage in Beirut. As Bill enters the world of political violence, a nightscape...
    Paperback
    $2499
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • Falling Man
    Falling Man begins on a day that changed the fabric of the world: September 11. Amidst the smoke and ash of the burning towers, the story zeroes in on Keith Neudecker, who emerges from the chaos, dust-covered and disoriented, stumbling away from ground zero. Throughout the novel, we follow the intricate aftermath of this global tremor, exploring its profound impact...
    Paperback
    Sold Out
  • Libra
    Reissue with a stunning new jacket of this classic DeLillo novel Dealey Plaza, Dallas, Texas. Friday, November 22, 1963. 12.30 PM. Shots ring out. A president dies. And a nation is plunged into psychosis. Libra, Don DeLillo's extraordinary novel, is a brilliant reimagining of the events and people surrounding the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Concentrating on the lives...
    Paperback
    Sold Out
  • Underworld
    Underworld opensโ€”famouslyโ€”at the Dodgers-Giants 1951 National League final, where Bobby Thomson hits The Shot Heard Round the World and wins the pennant race for the Giants. But on the other side of the planet, another highly significant shot was fired: the USSR's first atomic detonation. And so begins a masterpiece of gloriously symphonic storytelling. Don DeLillo loosely follows the fate...
    Paperback
    Sold Out

More from General Fiction

View all
  • The Wedding People
    'BEST READ OF THE YEAR SO FAR' THE TIMES 'BOOKS AS FUN AS THIS ONE ARE FEW AND FAR BETWEEN' GUARDIAN Phoebe Stone arrives at a grand beachside hotel in Rhode Island wearing her best dress and least comfortable shoes. Immediately she is mistaken for one of the wedding people โ€” but she's actually the only guest at the Cornwall...
    Paperback
    $2399
    Elsewhere:
    $2799
    (3)
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • Yesteryear
    A BOLD AND BITING SATIRE. WILL HAVE YOU GASPING TO THE FINAL PAGE โ€” Nita Prose WICKEDLY FUNNY, BEAUTIFULLY WRITTEN AND FRIGHTENINGLY PERCEPTIVE โ€” Abigail Dean INVENTIVE, ADDICTIVE, A WILD RIDE โ€” Ashley Audrain SHOT THROUGH WITH HUMOUR AND LACED WITH DARKNESS โ€” Clare Mackintosh The Stepford Wives meets The Handmaid's Tale โ€” Hannah Deitch My name was Natalie Heller...
    Paperback
    $2999
    Elsewhere:
    $3699
    (3)
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • Theo of Golden
    THE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLING PHENOMENON'For anything to be truly good, there must be love in it. Nothing is what it's supposed to be if love is not at the core.' One morning, a stranger arrives in the town of Golden. No one knows who he is or where he came fromโ€ฆHis name is Theo and he's arrived there by chance โ€“...
    Paperback
    $2899
    Elsewhere:
    $3499
    (6)
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • Dungeon Crawler Carl
    The apocalypse will be televised! Welcome to the first book in the wildly popular and addictive Dungeon Crawler Carl series by Matt Dinniman-now with bonus material exclusive to the print edition! You know what's worse than breaking up with your girlfriend? Being stuck with her prize-winning show cat. And you know what's worse than that? An alien invasion, the destruction...
    Paperback
    $3199
    Elsewhere:
    $3800
    (1)
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • Fourth Wing
    THE INSTANT SUNDAY TIMES AND NUMBER ONE GLOBAL BESTSELLING PHENOMENON! DON'T MISS OUT ON THE SERIES THAT EVERYONE CAN'T STOP TALKING ABOUT: 'This book contains an addictive, drug-like essence that will make you relinquish all responsibility until the very last word. Do not say I didn't warn you' Glamour 'I didn't sleep, I didn't eat, and when I finished, I...
    Paperback
    $2200
    Elsewhere:
    $3999
    (1)
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • The Dungeon Anarchist's Cookbook
    Carl and Princess Donut have to team up with other contestants to not just survive, but to solve a deadly puzzle in this third, mind-twisting novel in the addictive Dungeon Crawler Carl series -now with bonus material exclusive to this print edition! Carl and Donut have survived so far, but this fourth level is unlike anything they could imagine. The...
    Hardback
    $4700
    Elsewhere:
    $6000
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • New Release
    Taipei Story
    TAIPEI STORY is the electrifying new novel by bestselling literary phenomenon Rebecca F. Kuang, a profoundly moving coming-of-age story that explores first love, second language and final goodbyes โ€“ all set against the backdrop of one unforgettable summer in Taipei. Yale student Lily Chen arrives in Taipei hungry: for family, for culture, for connection. But her summer of discovery quickly...
    Paperback
    $2999
    Elsewhere:
    $3699
    (3)
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • The Gate of the Feral Gods
    The fourth book in the explosive LitRPG Dungeon Crawler Carl series New Achievement! Total, Utter Failure.You failed a quest less than five minutes after you received it. Now that's talent. Surviving in a multilevel dungeon that also happens to be the set of the galaxy's most watched game show has taught Coast Guard vet Carl and his ex-girlfriend's cat, Princess...
    Hardback
    $6000
    (2)
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • Iron Flame
    The instant number one Sunday Times bestseller and thrilling sequel to the global phenomenon, Fourth Wing! DON'T BE THE LAST TO DISCOVER THE SERIES THAT EVERYONE CAN'T STOP TALKING ABOUT: 'Yarros is the true inheritor of Harry Potter and inspires Hunger Games levels of devotion' Guardian 'Fear not, levels of fighting, rebelliousness and all-round sexiness are still sky-high' Daily Mail...
    Paperback
    $2200
    Elsewhere:
    $3999
    (1)
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • Haunting Adeline
    VIRAL BOOKTOK SENSATION AND USA TODAY BESTSELLING AUTHOR! The Manipulator I can manipulate the emotions of anyone who lets me. I will make you hurt, make you cry, make you laugh and sigh. But my words don't affect him. Especially not when I plead for him to leave. He's always there, watching and waiting. And I can never look away....
    Paperback
    $3199
    Elsewhere:
    $3799
    (2)
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • Carl's Doomsday Scenario
    Join Carl and his ex-girlfriend's cat Princess Donut as they fight fantastical creatures and deadly mobs in the second book in the smash-hit Dungeon Crawler Carl series -now with bonus material exclusive to the print edition Now on the third floor, Carl and Donut have to fight harder than ever. They've already proven that a Coast Guard vet and once-and-forever...
    Hardback
    $4699
    Elsewhere:
    $6000
    (1)
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • A Court of Thorns and Roses
    The first instalment of the GLOBAL PHENOMENON and TikTok sensation, from multi-million selling and #1 Sunday Times bestselling author Sarah J. Maas. Maas has established herself as a fantasy fiction titan โ€“ Time Harry Potter magic, Taylor Swift sass, Fifty Shades-level athleticism โ€“ The Sunday Times With bits of Buffy, Game of Thrones and Outlander, this is a glorious series...
    Paperback
    $2100
    Elsewhere:
    $2299
    (2)
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow

Why buy from us?

Book Hero is not a chain store or big box retailer. We're an independent 100% NZ-owned business on a mission to help more Kiwis rediscover a love of books and reading!

Service & Delivery

Service & Delivery

Our warehouse in Auckland holds over 100,000 books, toys, board games and puzzles in-stock so you're not waiting for your order to arrive from overseas.

Auckland Bookstore

Auckland Bookstore

We're primarily an online store, but for your convenience you can pick up your order for free from our bookstore, which is right next door to our warehouse in Hobsonville.

Our Gifting Service

Our Gifting Service

Books make wonderful thoughtful gifts and we're here to help with gift-wrapping and cards. We can even send your gift directly to your loved one.

General Fiction lists from the team

Explore our curated lists from our heroes to find your next read!