India, Aug. 15 -- We think of the internet as wireless, weightless, ever-present. But its true foundation lies in the ocean's depths, where nearly 900,000 miles of fiber-optic cables quietly pulse with all the world's information. In The Web Beneath the Waves, journalist Samanth Subramanian travels from remote Pacific islands to secretive cable-laying operations to reveal the astonishing world of undersea infrastructure. He reveals the fate of Tonga after a volcanic eruption severed its only undersea link to the internet, meets the men and women engaged in the complex work of laying submarine cables, and scrutinises the acts of "grey zone warfare," in which ghost ships cut the cables of other countries. With clarity, the author exposes just how vulnerable our connected lives really are. This book also explores what happens when the world goes offline, and who controls the switch....