All roads lead to Rome, or at least UNDERJUNGLE’s do. The Italian version of the novel was published September 18, 2024 by Edizioni di Atlantide, and I’m thrilled to have been invited to present it in eight cities in November and December, from Rome to Milan.

Where Sturz breaks from his possible predecessors, and follows an ever-inevitably new path, is in his introspection into the mind and senses of a subject that's other-than-us: in his attempt to create a coherent symbolic system, to savor a language, and to imagine perceptions and emotions that are infinitely distant from ours. In this intent, his aquatic, philosophical, and intensely lyrical novel reveals itself as child of its time, which is also ours.

PERCORSI DI LETTURA Viaggio attraverso «Underjungle» di James Sturz, edito da Atlantide, e «Tropico Mediterraneo» di Stefano Liberti per Laterza

READING GUIDE Journey through «Underjungle» by James Sturz, published by Atlantide, and «Tropico Mediterraneo» by Stefano Liberti for Laterza

“Un romanzo poetico e metafisico sull’oceano e le creature che lo abitano. Un libro bellissimo e davvero incredibile che racconta la vita attraverso la storia di una civiltà marina.”

Prefer to read Underjungle in Italian? Here’s your chance, thanks to Edizioni di Atlantide and Ilaria Oddenino, who translated the novel with tenderness, precision, and grace.

I spend a lot of time thinking about the water. The currents; the flitting, undulating, and tail-slapping life; the sunken ships; the sounds that can travel for 100 miles and yet seem like they originate beside you; the ocean’s persistence in the face of degradation and disappearing corals; the way it brings the creatures who live in it what they need — food, minerals, oxygen — and its mystery, power, and peace.

A reporter visits the first subsea condominiums off the Great Barrier Reef in 2083. But what happens when the environment turns less pacific?

Foreword Reviews is excited to announce the Finalists for the 2023 INDIES Book of the Year Awards. As a platform dedicated to discovering, reviewing, and sharing works from university and independent publishers, we are honored to showcase the outstanding talent and skill represented in this year’s Finalists.

Discover the transformative power of settings in storytelling with James Sturz, a celebrated novelist and magazine writer whose work has been published by The New York Times Magazine, The Atlantic, The Wall Street Journal, Outside, Men’s Journal, National Geographic Adventure, among others.

Greg Holt (aka Greg the Divemaster) interviews me on ScubaRadio.

And finally, a work of fiction that provides a fantastical, yet relatable, portrait of an environment that's a component of the majority of vacations: oceans. The narrator of "Underjungle," by James Sturz (Unnamed Press, 2023), is a thoughtful, sensitive and observant fish. The mix of fantasy, science and emotion was my favorite novel of the year and certainly one of the most unusual books in 2023.

Mitch Hampton of the Journey of an Aesthete Podcast interviews me…

BOMB looks back at the books from small and independent presses we featured in 2023 and helps you pair them with the idiosyncratic readers in your life.

James Sturz’s novel Underjungle is inventive and profound, a masterpiece of unique storytelling.

“Underjungle,” a new novel by author and journalist James Sturz about love, loss, family and war set entirely underwater, was recently released.

The novel is about an intelligent life form known as the “yc” that exist in the ocean’s depths, an apex predator among most fish.

The first fall monthly presentation by the New Jersey Maritime Museum will be given on Friday, Oct. 6 at 7 p.m. at Buckalew’s Restaurant and Tavern in Beach Haven.

The guest speaker is James Sturz, journalist and author of Underjungle, a tale of love, loss, family and war, set entirely underwater.

Underjungle is a newly published hard-cover science fiction novel set thousands of feet underwater by diver and top-notch journalist James Sturz (Wall Street Journal, New York Times, National Geographic). The mysterious, unnamed narrator of this exceptionally creative and unique fantasy is a sentient underwater being, but we only learn about him via a trickle of clues dropped throughout the story.

Another month of books, another month of covers. In August, I was inundated with eyes (and a few other unexpected body parts). Here are my favorite designs from the end of summer.

Many tiny eyes are arresting, but so is one very big eye. This one stopped me in my tracks from sheer surprise.

Welcome to August’s Book Covers We Love!! The full list is comprised of a selection of covers reviewed by a panel including Senior Designer of Children’s Books for HarperCollins, Jessie Gang; Creative Director for Counterpoint Press, Catapult and Soft Skull Press, Nicole Caputo; Freelance Designer Mark Swan; Co-Founder of Chapman & Wilder, Cherie Chapman; Author of the novels Girls in the Moon and The Looking Glass, Janet McNally; and Artworker for Ebury, Penguin and Spine Editor, Vyki Hendy.

I like to say my new novel, Underjungle, is a tale of love, loss, family, and war—set entirely underwater. So War and Peace, but three-thousand feet deeper. And considerably shorter. And maybe a little funnier, too. It’s also the story of an intelligent, meditative, and sometimes tempestuous species that discover a human body and the cascade of consequences to their world.

My favorite genre is “weird realism.” Realistic stories with an odd twist. That’s not an actual genre, but it ought to be, if you ask me.

When I heard about James Sturz’s new novel, Underjungle, and the descriptor was “the first serious novel set entirely underwater,” I was captivated. As the author of Remarkably Bright Creatures—the first novel narrated by a cranky octopus to hit the New York Times best sellers list (I assume? Is anyone tracking this?)—I felt an instant affection for what Underjungle was going for. Delightfully offbeat.