The Gotthard Base Tunnel novel by Fabrizio Zumstein tells the story of a shift leader and blasting master in Sedrun. Every day, he takes the shaft lift 800 meters into the underground, where the rock for the Gotthard Base Tunnel is blasted out deep within the mountain. He gave up his job with a construction company in the lowlands because he wanted to be part of the construction of the longest railway tunnel in the world, where heavy machinery, tools, and explosives are used. His wife has never fully forgiven him for living far away from their family in the mountain village. Their marriage, which has been reduced to a mere weekend relationship, is doomed to fail. When he encounters a geology student in the underground, his life begins to unravel more and more.