The World Beneath
Subtitle: a novel
By: Aaron Gwyn.
Publisher: W.W. Norton & Co.
Published: 2009
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 213
ISBN-13: 9780393067231
Subjects: Missing persons -- Investigation -- Fiction; Sheriffs -- Fiction; Persian Gulf War, 1991 -- Veterans -- Fiction; Oklahoma -- Fiction
Genres: Fiction.
Description: A mesmerizing literary novel that begins when a boy goes missing—and winds into an obsessive hunt with murderous results.

One cold November morning in Perser, Oklahoma, Sheriff Jerry Martin receives a disturbing call: a local fifteen-year-old has disappeared. The boy, J.T., who is half Mexican, half Chickasaw and has been raised by his grandmother, is known for starting trouble. Sheriff Martin sets out on a fevered search, determined to find J.T., even as the hunt reopens wounds from a traumatic event in his past. In a seemingly parallel but ultimately intersecting story, Hickson Crider, a veteran of the first Iraq war, discovers a mysterious crevice, perfectly round and seemingly bottomless, in his backyard. The hole becomes Hickson's obsession—and an ominous clue in Sheriff Martin's investigation.

Aaron Gwyn's perceptive, quietly beautiful prose is &quot;reminiscent of Flannery O'Connor&quot; (Kirkus Reviews), engaging us in a tale that is both savage and burning with heart, about the aftereffects of war, violence, faith, and random acts of devotion.