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During the late night of April 7 1990, a catastrophic blaze broke out aboard the MS Scandinavian Star, a car and passenger ferry operating between Oslo and Frederikshavn. Insufficient staff preparedness combined with malfunctioning fire doors aided the propagation of the flames, while toxic hydrogen cyanide gas emitted from burning materials caused the loss of 159 people. Initially, the disaster was blamed to a traveler—a truck driver with a history of arson. Since this suspect too died in the incident and was not able to defend the accusations, the full facts regarding the disaster remained concealed for many years. It wasn't until 2020 that a detailed documentary revealed the blaze was likely set intentionally as part of an insurance fraud.

Nordenhof's Literary Series: A Glimpse

In the first volume of Nordenhof's epic sequence, Money to Burn, an unnamed protagonist is riding on a bus through Copenhagen when she observes an elderly man on the street. As the vehicle drives away, she feels an “eerie sense” that she is carrying a piece of him with her. Driven to repeat the route in pursuit of him, the narrator finds herself in a landscape that is both alien and strangely known. She presents readers to Maggie and Kurt, whose relationship is strained by the burdens of their troubled histories. In the final pages of that book, it is implied that the source of Kurt's discontent may stem from a poor investment made on his behalf by a man referred to as T.

The Devil Book: A Unique Narrative Style

The Devil Book begins with an extended prose poem in which the narrator describes her challenge to write T's story. “In this volume, two,” she writes, “we were meant / to trace him / from youth up until / the evening / when he sat anticipating for / the report that / the fire / on the Scandinavian Star / had successfully been / set.” Burdened by the task she has assigned herself and disrupted by the global health crisis, she approaches the story indirectly, as a form of parable. “I came to think / that I / can do / anything I want / so this / is my work / this is / for you / this is / an erotic thriller / about businessmen and / the devil.”

A tale gradually unfolds of a woman who experiences lockdown in London with a virtual stranger and over the course of those days relates to him what occurred to her a ten years earlier, when she agreed to an offer from a figure who claimed 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 believe that they are identical—or at the very least that the nature of T is legion, for there are demonic forces all around.

Another blaze is present: a passionate, magnetic commitment to writing as a political act

Pacts and Consequences: A Literary Examination

Classic stories instruct us that it is the devil who does deals, not a divine being, and that we engage in them at our risk. But what if the protagonist herself is the malevolent force? A additional storyline eventually emerges—the account of a girl whose early years was scarred by abuse and who was placed in a psychiatric hospital, under duress to conform with societal norms or endure further harm. “[This entity] knows that in the scenario you've created for it, there are two results: submit or stay a beast.” A third way out is ultimately revealed through a series of verses to the darkness that are simultaneously a rallying cry against the forces of capital.

Connections and Readings: From Fiction to Reality

Numerous UK audience members of the author's Scandinavian Star books will reflect right away of the London tower tragedy, which, though unintentional in origin, bears parallels in that the resulting tragedy and fatalities can be linked at in part to the dangerous trade-off of prioritizing financial gain over human lives. In these first two volumes of what is projected to be a multi-volume series, the blaze on board the ship and the chain of deceptive business deals that culminated in multiple deaths are a sinister background presence, revealing themselves only in fleeting glimpses of detail or implication yet casting a growing shadow over all that occurs. Certain individuals may question how much it is possible to read The Devil Book as a stand-alone piece, when its aim and significance are so intricately tied into a larger whole whose final form, at this stage, is unknowable.

Experimental Writing: Art and Morality Fused

Some individuals—and I count myself as among them—who will fall in love with Nordenhof's endeavor purely as written art, as truly innovative literature whose moral and creative intent are so profoundly entwined as to make them inextricable. “Write poems / for we require / that as well.” There is another fire here: an intense, attractive devotion to the craft as a statement. I intend to continue to follow this series, no matter where it goes.