The Phoenix
It’s post WWII Rome, and Per Olsen is heading to meet a woman he hasn’t seen in more than a decade. To his surprise she recognizes him, despite his awful disfiguration from burns. However, the man she remembers is named Birger Lund, not Per Olsen. Through reminiscences he recalls the past decade, from the moment he lost contact with her during the Hindenburg disaster.
Edmund Boysen grew up on tiny island off the northern coast of Germany. Like many of the men from this island, he chose to make his living at sea. However, his fascination with the wildly popular Zeppelin airships swept him away from the seas and into the control room of the doomed Hindenburg.
These two men never meet during the fateful final voyage of the Hindenburg, yet their lives become forever entwined. Lund seeks answers about the death of the great airship. He believes Boysen knows more than he revealed at the post-inferno hearings and tracks him to his family home on the North Sea island, a bizarre and dangerous place where just being a stranger puts one’s life in jeopardy.
I found this story fascinating, especially from a technical viewpoint. The author’s father was a crewmember aboard the Hindenburg and survived to raise his son on stories of the great airship, stories which the author adeptly wove into this enjoyable yarn.
