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During the late night of April 7 1990, a devastating fire broke out on board the MS Scandinavian Star, a passenger ferry traveling between Frederikshavn and Oslo. Insufficient crew preparedness combined with jammed fire doors accelerated the spread of the fire, while deadly hydrogen cyanide gas released from burning laminates led to the loss of 159 people. At first, the tragedy was blamed to a passenger—a lorry driver with a history of arson. Since this suspect also perished in the fire and was not able to defend himself, the complete truth about the event remained hidden for a long time. It wasn't until 2020 that a detailed investigation disclosed the fire was probably set intentionally as part of an fraud scheme.

Nordenhof's Scandinavian Star Sequence: A Glimpse

In the initial book of Nordenhof's epic series, Money to Burn, an unidentified protagonist is traveling on a bus through Copenhagen when she observes an older man on the sidewalk. As the vehicle moves away, she feels an “uncanny feeling” that she is carrying a piece of him with her. Compelled to repeat the journey in search of him, the narrator finds herself in a setting that is both unfamiliar and deeply familiar. She introduces readers to Maggie and Kurt, whose connection is strained by the pressures of their troubled histories. In the final pages of that book, it is suggested 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: An Unconventional Approach

This second installment opens with an lengthy poetic passage in which the writer describes her challenge to compose T's narrative. “Within this second volume,” she writes, “we were supposed / to follow him / from childhood up until / the evening / when he sat waiting for / the report that / the fire / on the ferry / had effectively been / ignited.” Burdened by the task she has assigned herself and derailed by the pandemic, she approaches the story indirectly, as a form of allegory. “I came to think / that I / can do / whatever I want / so this / is my work / this is / for you / this is / an erotic thriller / about entrepreneurs and / the dark force.”

A tale slowly emerges of a female character who experiences quarantine in London with a near-unknown person and during those weeks relates to him what occurred to her a ten years before, when she agreed to an offer from a figure who claimed to be the evil entity to grant all her desires, so long as she didn't question his motives. As the elements of the dual narratives become more intertwined, we start to suspect that they are one and the same—or at minimum that the nature of T is legion, for there are demonic forces all around.

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

Deals with the Devil: A Literary Examination

Literature instruct us that it is the devil who does bargains, not a divine being, and that we engage in them at our peril. But suppose the protagonist herself is the malevolent force? A additional narrative comes finally to light—the story of a girl whose early years was scarred by mistreatment and who spent time in a psychiatric hospital, under pressure to comply with societal norms or suffer further harm. “[This entity] knows that in the scenario you've created for it, there are a pair of outcomes: submit or remain a beast.” A third way out is ultimately unveiled through a series of verses to the night that are also a call to arms against the forces of capital.

Parallels and Readings: From Literature to Reality

Numerous UK readers of Nordenhof's series novels will reflect right away of the Grenfell Tower tragedy, which, though unintentional in origin, bears parallels in that the ensuing disaster 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 multi-volume sequence, the fire on board the ferry and the chain of fraudulent business deals that culminated in multiple deaths are a ominous background element, revealing themselves only in brief flashes of information or implication yet projecting a deepening shadow over everything that occurs. Certain readers may question how far it is feasible to interpret The Devil Book as a independent piece, when its aim and significance are so deeply tied into a broader whole whose ultimate shape, at present, is unknowable.

Innovative Prose: Ethics and Aesthetics Intertwined

There will be others—and I count myself as among them—who will become enamored with the author's project purely as text, as properly experimental literature whose ethical and artistic intent are so profoundly entwined as to make them inseparable. “Compose verses / for we require / that as well.” Another kind of blaze exists: a passionate, magnetic devotion to writing as a political act. I will persist to pursue this series, no matter where it leads.