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In the early hours of April 7 1990, a catastrophic fire broke out on board the ferry Scandinavian Star, a car and passenger ferry traveling between Frederikshavn and Oslo. Inadequate staff preparedness along with malfunctioning safety doors aided the propagation of the fire, while deadly hydrogen cyanide gas released from combusting materials caused the deaths of 159 individuals. Initially, the disaster was blamed to a traveler—a lorry driver with a record of fire-setting. Given that this individual too perished in the incident and was not able to defend the accusations, the complete truth regarding the disaster remained hidden for many years. It wasn't until 2020 that a comprehensive investigation revealed the blaze was likely set intentionally as part of an insurance fraud.

Nordenhof's Literary Sequence: An Overview

Within the first volume of Nordenhof's Scandinavian Star sequence, Money to Burn, an unnamed narrator is riding on a bus through the Danish capital when she observes an older man on the sidewalk. As the vehicle moves away, she experiences an “eerie sense” that she is taking a piece of him with her. Compelled to retrace the route in search of him, the narrator finds herself in a landscape that is both unfamiliar and strangely known. She introduces readers to Maggie and Kurt, whose connection is strained by the burdens of their troubled pasts. In the concluding section of that volume, it is suggested that the source of the character's discontent may originate in a poor financial decision made on his behalf by a man known as T.

The Devil Book: A Unique Narrative Style

The Devil Book opens with an lengthy poetic passage in which the narrator describes her struggle to write T's story. “Within this second volume,” she writes, “we were supposed / to trace him / from childhood up until / the evening / when he sat waiting for / the news that / the blaze / on the Scandinavian Star / had effectively been / ignited.” Burdened by the undertaking she has set herself and derailed by the global health crisis, she approaches the tale indirectly, as a form of allegory. “It occurred to me / that I / can do / whatever I want / so this / is my book / this is / for you / this is / an sensational story / about entrepreneurs and / the devil.”

A tale gradually emerges of a female character who spends quarantine in the UK capital with a virtual stranger and during those weeks relates to him what occurred to her a decade earlier, when she accepted an offer from a figure who professed to be the devil to grant all her wishes, so long as she didn't doubt his motives. As the elements of the dual narratives become more interwoven, we begin to believe that they are one and the same—or at minimum that the identity of T is multiple, for there are demonic forces all around.

Another blaze is present: an ardent, compelling dedication to literature as a political act

Pacts and Consequences: A Thematic Exploration

Classic stories instruct us that it is the devil who makes deals, not God, and that we engage in them at our risk. But suppose the narrator herself is the malevolent force? A additional narrative eventually emerges—the story of a girl whose childhood was marred by abuse and who spent time in a psychiatric hospital, under duress to conform with social expectations or endure further harm. “[This entity] knows that in the scenario you've created for it, there are a pair of outcomes: surrender or stay a beast.” A third way out is finally unveiled through a series of poems to the darkness that are simultaneously a call to arms against the influences of capital.

Parallels and Interpretations: From Literature to Real Events

Many British audience members of Nordenhof's Scandinavian Star novels will think immediately of the London tower tragedy, which, though unintentional in cause, bears similarities in that the resulting tragedy and fatalities can be linked at in part to the devil's bargain of putting financial gain over people. In these first two books of what is projected to be a seven-book series, the fire on board the ship and the chain of deceptive business deals that ended in mass murder are a ominous background element, revealing themselves only in fleeting flashes of information or implication yet casting a growing shadow over all that transpires. Some individuals may question how far it is possible to interpret this volume as a independent work, when its purpose and significance are so deeply bound into a larger narrative whose final form, at this stage, is unknowable.

Experimental Writing: Ethics and Aesthetics Fused

Some individuals—and I count myself as among them—who will become enamored with Nordenhof's endeavor purely as written art, as truly experimental writing whose ethical and creative intent are so deeply entwined as to make them inextricable. “Compose verses / for we need / that too.” Another kind of blaze exists: an intense, attractive commitment to writing as a political act. I will continue to pursue this literary journey, wherever it goes.