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In the early hours of April 7 1990, a catastrophic fire broke out on board the MS Scandinavian Star, a passenger ferry operating between Frederikshavn and Oslo. Inadequate crew training along with jammed safety doors accelerated the propagation of the flames, while deadly cyanide gas released from combusting laminates caused the deaths of 159 individuals. At first, the disaster was attributed to a traveler—a lorry driver with a history of arson. Since this individual also died in the incident and was unable to defend himself, the complete facts regarding the event remained concealed for many years. It wasn't until 2020 that a comprehensive documentary disclosed the fire was likely started intentionally as part of an fraud scheme.

Nordenhof's Scandinavian Star Sequence: An Overview

Within the initial book of Nordenhof's Scandinavian Star sequence, Money to Burn, an unnamed protagonist is riding on a public transport through Copenhagen when she observes an elderly man on the sidewalk. As the vehicle drives away, she feels an “uncanny feeling” that she is carrying a piece of him with her. Compelled to retrace the route in pursuit of him, the narrator enters a landscape that is both alien and strangely known. She introduces us to Maggie and Kurt, whose relationship is strained by the pressures of their conflicted histories. In the final pages of that book, it is implied that the root of Kurt's discontent may stem from a disastrous financial decision made on his behalf by a individual referred to as T.

The Devil Book: A Unique Narrative Style

This second installment begins with an extended prose poem in which the writer describes her challenge to write T's narrative. “Within this volume, two,” she writes, “we were supposed / to follow him / from childhood up until / the evening / when he sat anticipating for / the news that / the fire / on the ferry / had successfully been / ignited.” Burdened by the undertaking she has assigned herself and derailed by the pandemic, she tackles the story obliquely, as a type of parable. “I came to think / that I / can do / whatever I want / so this / is my work / this is / for you / this is / an sensational story / about entrepreneurs and / the devil.”

A tale gradually unfolds of a female character who experiences lockdown in London with a near-unknown person and during those weeks relates to him what occurred to her a decade earlier, when she agreed to an proposal from a man who claimed to be the evil entity to grant all her wishes, so long as she didn't doubt his motives. As the elements of the dual narratives become more intertwined, we begin to suspect that they are identical—or at minimum that the identity of T is legion, for there are devils all around.

Another blaze is present: an ardent, magnetic dedication to literature as a form of activism

Pacts and Consequences: A Literary Examination

Literature instruct us that it is the devil who does bargains, not God, and that we enter into them at our peril. But suppose the protagonist herself is the devil? A additional storyline comes finally to light—the account of a girl whose childhood was marred by mistreatment and who was placed in a mental health facility, under pressure to comply with social expectations or endure further harm. “[This entity] understands that in the scenario you've set for it, there are two outcomes: submit or remain a beast.” A third way out is finally revealed through a series of verses to the darkness that are simultaneously a rallying cry against the influences of wealth and power.

Parallels and Readings: From Fiction to Real Events

Many British audience members of Nordenhof's series books will think right away of the Grenfell Tower tragedy, which, though accidental in cause, bears similarities in that the ensuing tragedy and loss of life can be attributed at in part to the dangerous trade-off of prioritizing profit over people. In these first two volumes of what is projected to be a multi-volume sequence, the fire aboard the ferry and the series of deceptive business deals that culminated in mass murder are a sinister underlying presence, revealing themselves only in brief flashes of detail or inference yet projecting a deepening influence over everything that transpires. Some individuals may question how far it is feasible to interpret The Devil Book as a stand-alone work, when its purpose and meaning are so deeply bound into a broader whole whose final form, at this stage, is uncertain.

Experimental Writing: Ethics and Aesthetics Intertwined

Some individuals—and I include myself as one of them—who will become enamored with the author's endeavor purely as written art, as truly experimental writing whose moral and creative intent are so profoundly interlinked as to make them inextricable. “Write poems / for we require / that as well.” There is another fire here: a passionate, attractive commitment to writing as a statement. I intend to persist to follow this literary journey, no matter where it leads.