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Fascinating story following people trying to escape East Berlin for West Berlin. The book tells the story from several perspectives including the people looking to escape, the people trying to help them escape and even a spy working against them from the Stasi.(Stasi are the police in East Berlin working to stop and punish people trying to leave)

I grew up being aware of the strange circumstances of a city divided by a wall and the tension at that wall over the cold war but never heard the stories of how it tore families apart with husbands and wives on opposite sides and even parents separated from their children.

In Tunnel 29, Helena Merriman does a great job of keeping the reader on the edge of their seat as tension builds towards the big planned escape.

I certainly loved reading about the heroes risking their lives to help people escape but the most incredible part was about the spies turning in their friends and neighbors. When the wall finally came down Germany started to release the "Stasi" files which gave people a chance to see their files and find out who spied on them. In many cases people were heartbroken to find it was their good friends and even relatives that were betraying them.

"When you talk to people who lived behind the Wall, it's these personal betrayals that seem to have caused the deepest hurt: children betrayed by parents, parents betrayed by children, friend betrayed by friend".