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Reviews
Tunnel 29: The True Story of an Extraordinary Escape Beneath the Berlin Wall by Helena Merriman
ashleyeila's review against another edition
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
tense
medium-paced
4.5
beautifulpaxielreads's review against another edition
I need more time to focus on other books, I will return to this one eventually.
Content Warnings
Graphic: War, Torture, and Violence
mollyc98's review
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
tense
medium-paced
5.0
I was absolutely hooked, a real page turner.
polom's review
5.0
Wonderfully Written, it Reads like a thriller. The Audiobook, and its accompanying podcast (BBC Intrigue - highly reccomended) kept me on the edge of my seat throughout. I could listen to Helen Merriman reading the phonebook and I bet she'd make it interesting. By far the best book I've read this year.
melolivia17's review
adventurous
challenging
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
tense
fast-paced
4.5
drlucyc's review
adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
tense
medium-paced
5.0
Astonishing. Absolutely captures the fear of living in East Berlin, and the powerful sense of duty to freedom that motivated Joachim Rudolph to dig that tunnel to bring strangers across from East Berlin to the West. Never falls into easy anti-communist stereotypes, and retains an incredible sense of pity and sympathy for those affected; loved the paralleling of Siegfried Uhse with Joachim and other members of Girrmann group. Has a wonderful understanding of the way archives and sources leave things out, of how some questions — like what motivated Siegfried Uhse to stop collaborating with the Stasi — can’t be answered. Gripping as a thriller — I couldn’t stop reading during the chapter describing the escape itself — and as moving as anything I’ve read in a long time, as I wept quietly at the revelations that Joachim and Evi ended up happy together, as did Wolfdieter and Renate. Astonishing.
lindsey_bear's review
hopeful
medium-paced
5.0
Very engaging, well-paced story of life surrounding the Berlin Wall. I found the background history fascinating and thorough given my lack of background knowledge of the time period and events leading up to the construction of the Wall. This book made me feel as if the people it followed could have been my own friends or family—the history was humanised in a very unique and special way. The photos within the book were a great addition to the text. I’m only left with wanting to read more about the Stasi and more about life in the East, particularly outside of East Berlin, such as is Leipzig or Dresden.