The Phoenix

Starred review from October 8, 2001
The 1937 Hindenburg
disaster at Lakehurst, N.J., has been the subject of numerous books, several feature films and countless rumors. The mystery of the horrific zeppelin fire that claimed 35 lives is resurrected in this dark and brooding story about a survivor obsessed with finding out the cause of the catastrophe. Boëtius, a popular German author, is also the son of one of the survivors of the Hindenburg
and was raised on his father's stories of the event. The powerful tale he crafts here tells of a man who rises from the Hindenburg's
ashes, equipped with a new face, a new identity and a new purpose in life. Birger Lund is a passenger on the Hindenburg's
last flight across the Atlantic in May 1937. He miraculously survives the crash and fire, assumes the identity of a dead passenger and spends 10 years doggedly searching for answers to the questions of how and why. His search ends in 1947 when he finally locates one of the surviving airship officers—Nazi enthusiast Edmund Boysen, the man at the zeppelin's controls when the crash occurred—by tracking him to a sinister, isolated island in the North Sea. Boëtius tells this story through both men, cleverly exploring the theories of what caused the disaster: natural lightning activity, crew or passenger carelessness and the more ominous one of sabotage. Anti-Nazis, the Gestapo, secret agents and some other unusual travelers on the passenger list add great drama and suspense. Boëtius has created an original plot peopled with intensely realized characters, set against a vivid backdrop of prewar politics and the romance of zeppelin flight. (Dec. 26)Forecast:Boëtius's personal tie to the
Hindenburg debacle should spark curiosity, and the powerful, understated jacket design will help the book stand out on display tables.

August 1, 2001
German author Boetius connects the airship's conflagration to Nazi politics.

Copyright 2001 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

November 15, 2001
Birger Lund, a Swedish journalist, manages to escape from the doomed zeppelin " Hindenburg" as it crashes to the Lakehurst, New Jersey, airfield in flames. Seizing the opportunity to step into a new life, he allows himself to be listed among the casualties. Unconvinced of the investigation's assessment of the catastrophe, Lund spends the next 10 years obsessed with finding out what really happened. Among the questions he seeks to answer is, who was the stowaway onboard, the one who shouldn't have been there, the corpse mistakenly assumed to be Lund? When he finally tracks down a surviving crew member, their conversation allows Lund to finally move out from under this dark cloud and to think about building a normal life again. In his first novel to be published in English, Boetius, son of a " Hindenburg" crew member, is either telling a creatively detailed story or voicing his father's recollections and doubts about the accident. It is slow in places, but the mystery surrounding the infamous disaster will compel readers to keep turning the pages.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2001, American Library Association.)