There is a popular, long held superstition that when you are travelling through a tunnel, if you make a wish, and hold your breath for the length of the tunnel, your wish will come true. Over the last decade, Tripp Friedler would hold his breath and make one wish: that his son Henry would get better, that he would find a way for him to live with his debilitating bipolar disorder—a disorder that cost Henry the ability to hold down a job, keep friends, or maintain an apartment. A disorder that would see him kicked out of prep schools and colleges and that led to time in psych wards and, occasionally, jail. The Tunnel is a father’s memoir about a family’s odyssey through the world of serious mental illness. It is a story about the battles Henry fought with his parents, with various authority figures—including schools, teachers, and the police— and most importantly, the battles Henry fought with his own mind. Henry’s story takes place for the most part in the distinctive air of Uptown New Orleans. He came from a well-educated and prosperous Southern family, the only son between two sisters. The memoir chronicles the way society views, treats, and even criminalizes the mentally ill. It is a love story of a husband and wife as well as a fractured love story of a father and son. But at its heart The Tunnel is a story of the resilience of a family, a man, and a marriage. It is a story of taking that gasp of air at the end of a tunnel—a breath that says you are alive, you made it through your own tunnel of darkness, and you will find happiness on the other side.