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In the early hours of April 7 1990, a devastating fire broke out on board the ferry Scandinavian Star, a car and passenger ferry traveling between Oslo and Frederikshavn. Inadequate staff preparedness combined with malfunctioning safety doors accelerated the spread of the fire, while toxic cyanide gas emitted from combusting laminates caused the deaths of 159 people. Initially, the disaster was attributed to a passenger—a lorry driver with a record of fire-setting. Since this individual also perished in the fire and was unable to defend the accusations, the full truth about the event remained concealed for many years. It wasn't until 2020 that a comprehensive investigation disclosed the fire was likely set intentionally as part of an insurance fraud.

Nordenhof's Scandinavian Star Sequence: A Glimpse

Within the first volume of Nordenhof's epic sequence, Money to Burn, an unidentified narrator is riding on a bus through the Danish capital when she notices an older man on the street. As the vehicle drives away, she experiences an “eerie sense” that she is carrying a piece of him with her. Driven to retrace the journey in pursuit of him, the character enters a setting that is both alien and deeply familiar. She introduces us to Maggie and Kurt, whose connection is tested by the pressures of their troubled histories. In the concluding section of that book, it is suggested that the root of Kurt's disaffection may stem from a poor financial decision made on his account by a individual referred to as T.

This New Volume: An Unconventional Approach

The Devil Book begins with an lengthy poetic passage in which the writer describes her challenge to write T's story. “In this second volume,” she states, “we were meant / to trace him / from childhood up until / the evening / when he sat anticipating for / the news that / the fire / on the ferry / had effectively been / set.” Overwhelmed by the task she has assigned herself and disrupted by the pandemic, she approaches the tale indirectly, as a form of allegory. “I came to think / that I / can do / whatever I want / so this / is my book / this is / for you / this is / an erotic thriller / about businessmen and / the devil.”

A tale gradually unfolds of a woman who experiences quarantine in London with a near-unknown person and over the course of those weeks tells to him what occurred to her a ten years earlier, when she accepted an offer from a figure who professed to be the evil entity to fulfill all her wishes, so long as she didn't question his motives. As the elements of the dual narratives become more interwoven, we begin to suspect that they are one and the same—or at the very least that the nature of T is multiple, for there are devils all around.

There is another fire here: a passionate, compelling dedication to writing as a political act

Deals with the Devil: A Thematic Examination

Literature instruct us that it is the devil who does bargains, not a divine being, and that we enter into them at our peril. But what if the narrator herself is the malevolent force? A additional narrative comes finally to light—the account of a young woman whose childhood was scarred by mistreatment and who spent time in a psychiatric hospital, under duress to conform with societal norms or suffer more of the same. “[The devil] knows that in the scenario you've created for it, there are two outcomes: surrender or remain a monster.” A third way out is ultimately revealed through a collection of poems to the night that are simultaneously a call to arms against the influences of wealth and power.

Parallels and Interpretations: From Fiction to Reality

Many UK readers of Nordenhof's Scandinavian Star novels will reflect right away of the Grenfell Tower tragedy, which, though accidental in cause, bears parallels in that the ensuing disaster and fatalities can be attributed at in part to the dangerous trade-off of putting profit over human lives. In these initial books of what is projected to be a multi-volume sequence, the blaze on board the ship and the chain of fraudulent transactions that culminated in mass murder are a sinister underlying element, showing themselves only in brief flashes of detail or implication yet projecting a growing shadow over everything that transpires. Some readers may doubt how far it is possible to interpret The Devil Book as a independent piece, when its purpose and meaning are so intricately tied into a broader whole whose ultimate shape, at present, is unknowable.

Innovative Prose: Art and Morality Fused

Some individuals—and I include myself as among them—who will fall in love with Nordenhof's project purely as text, as truly experimental writing whose ethical and artistic purpose are so profoundly interlinked as to make them inseparable. “Compose verses / for we require / that as well.” There is another fire here: a passionate, magnetic commitment to writing as a statement. I will persist to follow this series, no matter where it leads.