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Tunnel
One evening in early autumn, ten people drive into a tunnel through the Cape mountains – and find themselves trapped.
As their limited supplies dwindle, what do they do? Where can they go? What will they find?
Tunnel burrows deep into the psychologies and coping strategies that connect and disconnect these protagonists in a dark, tense and compelling human drama.
An urgent new novel, told through many eyes; a journey – terrific and mystical – through despair, memory, and love.
As their limited supplies dwindle, what do they do? Where can they go? What will they find?
Tunnel burrows deep into the psychologies and coping strategies that connect and disconnect these protagonists in a dark, tense and compelling human drama.
An urgent new novel, told through many eyes; a journey – terrific and mystical – through despair, memory, and love.
152 pages, Paperback
Published May 23, 2023
16 people want to read
About the author
Nick Mulgrew
17 books22 followersNick Mulgrew is an award-winning writer, editor and publisher, currently based in Edinburgh. He is the author of six books, and since 2014 is the director of uHlanga, an acclaimed South African poetry press.
His novels include A Hibiscus Coast, winner of the 2022 K. Sello Duiker Memorial Award. Among other accolades, he is the winner of the 2016 Thomas Pringle Award, the 2018 Nadine Gordimer Prize (for his story collection, The First Law of Sadness), and is the recipient of a Mandela Rhodes Scholarship.
His novels include A Hibiscus Coast, winner of the 2022 K. Sello Duiker Memorial Award. Among other accolades, he is the winner of the 2016 Thomas Pringle Award, the 2018 Nadine Gordimer Prize (for his story collection, The First Law of Sadness), and is the recipient of a Mandela Rhodes Scholarship.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
May 29, 2023
Tunnel by Nick Mulgrew is a thrilling, elusive, slippery little novel that defies definition, genre or clear-cut stories - it’s masterful in its complexity and nuance.
On March Day, a public holiday in a eerily-similar but ominously-off South Africa, a handful of travelers enter a tunnel in the mountains outside Cape Town, and get stuck. What occurs thereafter is a story of grit and survival, and, above all else, humanity.
What makes this novel so brilliant is it’s ambiguity - there is no easy lens to apply to the book that neatly explains the tunnel as a metaphor. Sure, there’s the meta-crisis or the all-encompassing darkness of depression or mental illness, but there’s so much more and this novel can be read in so many more ways than these. It’s also a powerfully collaborative novel - where Mulgrew is keenly aware of the fact that he is creating this world in partnership with his reader by playing on the horrors of the readers’ imagination or letting the readers in on small ironies. This shows a tremendous amount of respect for the reader and makes for a thoroughly enjoyable read.
On March Day, a public holiday in a eerily-similar but ominously-off South Africa, a handful of travelers enter a tunnel in the mountains outside Cape Town, and get stuck. What occurs thereafter is a story of grit and survival, and, above all else, humanity.
What makes this novel so brilliant is it’s ambiguity - there is no easy lens to apply to the book that neatly explains the tunnel as a metaphor. Sure, there’s the meta-crisis or the all-encompassing darkness of depression or mental illness, but there’s so much more and this novel can be read in so many more ways than these. It’s also a powerfully collaborative novel - where Mulgrew is keenly aware of the fact that he is creating this world in partnership with his reader by playing on the horrors of the readers’ imagination or letting the readers in on small ironies. This shows a tremendous amount of respect for the reader and makes for a thoroughly enjoyable read.
June 16, 2023
There is something comforting about reading a story based in-and-around the city where you live, which I'm thankful for this case because the story may leave you feeling pretty uncomfortable and disturbed! A gripping blast of a read.
November 14, 2025
Honestly, it confused me more than it moved me. The story felt disjointed, jumping between characters and their inner worlds without a clear anchor. It tries to feel literary and profound, but the tone comes off as overly simplistic, like it wants to be deep, but isn’t quite brave to just jump into it!
It never landed with me, emotionally. The mystical elements and memory play felt loose rather than meaningful, and when it ended, I was left more in the dark than enlightened. There are two scenes that I did enjoy: couples having a quarrel in the car (funny) and one of the characters reminiscing on past colleagues (some great prose there).
A bold concept, but in practice, it didn’t resonate. It doesn’t mean the author’s other books won’t be next 5 star read. Looking forward to trying something different. I always feel sad leaving a less than amazed review because I want to support all authors and publish my own book one day but compartmentalising my opinion as a reader from the craft of writing seems so bleh! And, it might be an amazing work of fiction, just not my taste right now. Subjectivity is so strange and unique.
It never landed with me, emotionally. The mystical elements and memory play felt loose rather than meaningful, and when it ended, I was left more in the dark than enlightened. There are two scenes that I did enjoy: couples having a quarrel in the car (funny) and one of the characters reminiscing on past colleagues (some great prose there).
A bold concept, but in practice, it didn’t resonate. It doesn’t mean the author’s other books won’t be next 5 star read. Looking forward to trying something different. I always feel sad leaving a less than amazed review because I want to support all authors and publish my own book one day but compartmentalising my opinion as a reader from the craft of writing seems so bleh! And, it might be an amazing work of fiction, just not my taste right now. Subjectivity is so strange and unique.
January 18, 2025
Nick Mulgrew has written a novel quite at home in the company of The Road and Life and Times of Michael K. And just like the dystopian fables Tunnel reminded me of, Mulgrew's spare and poetic language captures the quiet dread of a claustrophobic apocalypse.
Following in the footsteps of so many speculative SF authors (Frank Herbert, N.K. Jamisin, Margaret Atwood, or George Saunders, to name a few), Nick Mulgrew throws you headfirst into his alternate history without any warning or lifeboats. And the experience is so much more rewarding for that, for being caught off-guard.
Just like the tunnel's ability to be a seemingly endless cavern through a mountain and a suffocating trapped space all at once, so this slim novel manages to carry a far larger story within it's 152 pages than you'd think possible.
Following in the footsteps of so many speculative SF authors (Frank Herbert, N.K. Jamisin, Margaret Atwood, or George Saunders, to name a few), Nick Mulgrew throws you headfirst into his alternate history without any warning or lifeboats. And the experience is so much more rewarding for that, for being caught off-guard.
Just like the tunnel's ability to be a seemingly endless cavern through a mountain and a suffocating trapped space all at once, so this slim novel manages to carry a far larger story within it's 152 pages than you'd think possible.
May 25, 2023
I couldn't put this book down. The story of ten strangers suddenly trapped in the Huguenot Tunnel between Cape Town and the interior, and their increasing desperation as their supplies dwindle and they try to figure out what happened. There is some kind of cataclysm outside - from which maybe the tunnel is protecting them - but what is it? Mulgrew's writing is powerfully evocative and I loved so much about this book. The unusual cast of characters. The the ever-increasing tension. The layering and nuance - it resists an easy interpretation as "oh this is a book about x." The exploration of inner versus outer turmoil. The idea that if the world ends, maybe we won't know why, or how, and we'll have to figure it all out in our tiny lives, with only those closest to us.
December 20, 2024
I don't think this book is for casual readers. All the way through I kept wondering: "Why am I reading this". Every page I turn hoping something will happen. It is was only 150 pages and the only reason why I continued, but still by page 140 I felt the same. I probably did not understand the book and the hidden meanings, but I was waiting for suspense, but nothing...I did not get the ending...all just a bunch of loose ends.
The premise of the book really intrigued me, but I felt that it did not deliver.
Someone with a higher education in Literature will probably enjoy this, but not someone looking for a good suspense story.
The premise of the book really intrigued me, but I felt that it did not deliver.
Someone with a higher education in Literature will probably enjoy this, but not someone looking for a good suspense story.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews