despite the constant nightmares that remind her of the attack that almost took her life emma morgan has come to accept the risk that comes from being a human in love with an immortal unfortunately its sean who still continues to struggle with his sisters presence in the world of his new life a struggle that inevitably leaves him distracted long enough to go missing on his watch but emma learns that finding her brother may come at a high price thirty years in the making william gasss second novel first appeared on the literary scene in 1995 at which time it was promptly hailed as an indisputable masterpiece the story of a middle aged professor who upon completion of his massive historical study guilt and innocence in hitlers germany finds himself writing a novel about his own life instead of the introduction to his magnum opus the tunnel meditates on history hatred unhappiness and above all language