Tunnel 29: The True Story of an Extraordinary Escape Beneath the Berlin Wall

Within the first two dozen pages of Merriman’s debut history book, you will be hooked, unable to stop reading. For the generations born after the collapse of the Soviet Union and the fall of the Berlin Wall, this Cold War narrative may catch many off guard. Merriman takes it in small slices from its frosty beginning through to the heat that looked dangerously close to launching World War Three, dividing a city overnight with a wall that separated husbands from wives and parents from children.

Merriman threads history with story angles from all sides, painting the backdrop of an extensive spy network. People were cut off from jobs and loved ones. State police shot to kill anyone who attempted to cross the border illegally. The media spun both sides of the political backwash of communists and capitalists alike. Tunnel 29 gets its name from the number of people who escaped through it in one night, even as it filled with water and began to cave in. The book is far deeper than the tunnel. Merriman has captured a glimpse of how far people will go to be free.