The Undertow is a love story, but it's not a romance novel. It is about the death of people and of things within us and bringing those things back to life. It talks about some truths that are stranger than fiction; about the long span of the arc from disaster to success. It talks about plants, but has nothing to do with gardening. It explores the meaning of life but knows better than to attempt to provide answers. It does betray some biases... That sometimes it is better not to know so much that you can't say 'yes'. It is about conviction and doubt, about the preciousness of time, about the preciousness of being alive, and about the things we do that act on what we know.