Tunnel 29: Love, Espionage and Betrayal: the True Story of an Extraordinary Escape Beneath the Berlin Wall | 
pickCold War nonfiction companion to podcast about 1962 tunnel dug beneath the Berlin Wall, which allowed 29 people to cross from East to West Berlin. US broadcaster NBC filmed a documentary & financed the dig. Spies, students, families split in two, digging under Stasi soldiers‘ feet. Checkpoint Charlie. The leak. 2021
277 “When you talk to people who lived behind the Wall, it‘s these personal betrayals that seem to have caused the deepest hurt.”
My NONFICTION bracket was a tough one because I read some really good nonfiction in August. My top pick was the tagged book about a group of students who dug a tunnel under the Berlin Wall from West to East Berlin to help people escape. It reads like a thriller —and it‘s all true. It almost moved on, but I had to award the slot to July‘s pick because I do so love a good biography where I learn new things about a person.
pickExcellent narrative nonfiction about a group of university students who decide to dig a tunnel under the Berlin Wall from West Berlin into East Berlin in an attempt to help others escape. Reads like a thriller —and it‘s all true. Lots of interesting history about the wall and the Stasi, East Germany‘s secret police.
#Nonfiction2023
Prompt: Running Up That Hill
pick(2021) Expanding on a BBC podcast, this tells the story of a group of students in 1962 who escaped from East Germany, then built a tunnel under the Berlin Wall to help others escape. Its roots as a podcast show in its vivid scene-setting and sharp pacing. It's the sort of nonfic that "reads like a thriller," so if that's your thing ... yeah, mine too.
This was my #DoubleSpin read for June, just under the wire.
