A review by drlucyc
Tunnel 29: The True Story of an Extraordinary Escape Beneath the Berlin Wall by Helena Merriman

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.