T. Coraghessan Boyle's story, "The Underground Gardens," was first published in the New Yorker in the May 25, 1998, issue, and was collected in 2001 in the author's short-story collection After the Plague. The story is loosely based on the life of an Italian American immigrant who began digging a huge underground complex on his land in Fresno, California, in the aridSan Joaquin Valley, in the early 1900s. Using this historical person and elements of his life as a start, Boyle crafts an optimistic story about an Italian American immigrant whose hopes— including marrying the woman of his dreams—are repeatedly dashed, but who nevertheless perseveres and continues to dream. This story is unlike many of Boyle's works, which poke fun at the human condition or contain large doses of cynicism, sarcasm or other forms of negativity. Instead, Boyle examines positive ideas such as the power of faith and the importance of self-sufficiency. The story is, however, similar to many of Boyle's other works, in that it uses an actual historical event—in this case, Baldasare's digging of his gardens—as a starting point for the narrative. A copy of the story can be found in the Penguin paperback edition of After the Plague, which was published in 2003.