The Underminer: The Best Friend Who Casually Destroys Your Life

You can't escape him. He swerves in and out of your life as if effortlessly walking through a crowded restaurant. He's a passive-aggressive master. He's as undetectable as a whisper and as effective as a tiny toxic pill. You probably went to school with him, and he knows everything you've done-every foolish secret ambition you've nurtured, everyone you wish you'd never slept with, every lame, fleeting trend you've embraced. The Underminer throws you into a spiral of self-doubt each time you see him. But...the Underminer is your friend. With this book, Mike Albo and Virginia Heffernan channel this hilarious and mysterious evil that we all have encountered. Through 15 years of booming successes and miserable failures, they pursue this powerful "friend" as he slowly and relentlessly dismantles the life of a nameless victim. Here is the subtle slayer of your hopes, the tactful destroyer of your dreams: the Underminer.

Mike Albo is a writer and performer who has performed his comedic monologues all over the country and abroad, in cities including Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York, Toronto, and London. His first novel, Hornito, was published in 2000.

Virginia Heffernan, who co-writes with Albo for his performances, is a television critic for the New York Times.