Corinna Abramovicz is on the way to Lugano with her school class when their train makes an unscheduled stop inside the Gotthard Tunnel. Initially, the train staff assumes that a technical malfunction is at fault. But when the power cuts out and the communication system breaks down, being trapped in a dark tunnel soon turns into a nightmare for the 300 passengers. And Cordula Abramovicz knows that the race against time already begun. With The Tunnel, Hans Leister has written a dark, highly gripping thriller that plays with our fear of the fight for sheer survival in a nightmarish and simultaneously fascinating way.

»It was May, it was a Saturday, and everything was as usual. I arrived at Basel Train Station in the afternoon, went to the platform from which the Intercity to Lugano was scheduled to depart. The journey takes you through the Gotthard Tunnel for 35 miles, the longest tunnel in the world. In the evening, we were meant to return to Basel. That was the plan. I never saw Basel Train Station, my family, nor my apartment again.«

In his debut novel, Hans Leister creates a powerful scenario distinguished by his technical refinement and an outstanding sense for his protagonists: 300 passengers in a train, who, locked inside the tunnel system of the Saint-Gotthard Massif and cut off from the outside world, fight for their survival while an apocalyptic catastrophe causes havoc on the outside.

»Thrilling! It’s been a long time since a debut has taken my breath away like this – you have to remember the name of the author, Hans Leister«
BücherMarkt

»A thrilling book.«
Berliner Zeitung

»The Tunnel is a fact-filled thriller that is highly recommended to railway enthusiasts and end-of-the-world fans. «
Der Eisenbahningenieur

»Detailed, knowledgeable, atmospherically convincing thriller.«
Der Fahrgast

»Hans Leister has created an excellent thriller, once you start reading you can hardly put the book down«
Fern-express.ch

»As travel reading – at least for people without claustrophobic tendencies – quite original.«
Welt am Sonntag

»Hans Leister has written a pacing thriller in which the Gotthard tunnel is the setting.«
FAZ

»Hans Leister sets his gloomy, suspenseful, apocalyptic story largely in the Gotthard Base Tunnel tube system.«
Bahnexperte

»Hans Leister has created an excellent thriller, once you start reading you can hardly put the book down.«
fern-express.ch