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In the early hours of the 7th of April 1990, a catastrophic fire broke out on board the MS Scandinavian Star, a car and passenger ferry operating between Oslo and Frederikshavn. Insufficient staff training along with jammed safety doors accelerated the spread of the flames, while deadly cyanide gas emitted from combusting laminates caused the loss of 159 individuals. Initially, the tragedy was blamed to a traveler—a lorry driver with a history of fire-setting. Given that this individual too died in the fire and was unable to defend the accusations, the complete facts about the disaster remained hidden for many years. It wasn't until 2020 that a comprehensive documentary disclosed the blaze was likely set intentionally as part of an insurance fraud.

Nordenhof's Scandinavian Star Series: A Glimpse

Within the first volume of Nordenhof's epic sequence, the preceding volume, an unidentified narrator is riding on a bus through the Danish capital when she notices an elderly man on the sidewalk. As the vehicle drives away, she experiences an “eerie sense” that she is carrying a part of him with her. Compelled to retrace the journey in pursuit of him, the character enters a setting that is both alien and deeply familiar. She presents us to a couple named Maggie and Kurt, whose relationship is strained by the pressures of their conflicted histories. In the final pages of that volume, it is suggested that the source of Kurt's discontent may originate in a poor investment made on his account by a man referred to as T.

This New Volume: A Unique Narrative Style

This second installment begins with an lengthy poetic passage in which the narrator explains her challenge to write T's narrative. “Within this second volume,” she writes, “we were supposed / to follow him / from youth up until / the evening / when he sat waiting for / the report that / the blaze / on the Scandinavian Star / had successfully been / set.” Overwhelmed by the undertaking she has assigned herself and derailed by the global health crisis, she approaches the story obliquely, as a type 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 businessmen and / the dark force.”

A narrative gradually unfolds of a woman who spends quarantine in the UK capital with a virtual stranger and during those days relates to him what occurred to her a decade earlier, when she agreed to an offer from a man who professed to be the evil entity to grant all her wishes, so long as she didn't question his intentions. As the elements of the two stories become more intertwined, we begin to believe that they are one and the same—or at the very least that the nature of T is multiple, for there are demonic forces all around.

There is another fire here: a passionate, compelling commitment to writing as a form of activism

Pacts and Consequences: A Literary Exploration

Literature teach us that it is the dark figure who does deals, not a divine being, and that we engage in them at our peril. But suppose the narrator herself is the devil? A third storyline comes finally to light—the account of a girl whose early years was marred by mistreatment and who was placed in a mental health facility, under duress to comply with social expectations or endure further harm. “[This entity] knows that in the scenario you've created for it, there are two outcomes: submit or remain a monster.” A third way out is finally unveiled through a series of verses to the night that are also a call to arms against the influences of wealth and power.

Parallels and Interpretations: From Fiction to Real Events

Many UK audience members of Nordenhof's Scandinavian Star books will reflect right away of the Grenfell Tower fire, which, though unintentional in origin, shares similarities in that the resulting tragedy and fatalities can be linked at in part to the devil's bargain of prioritizing profit over human lives. In these first two books of what is projected to be a multi-volume series, the blaze on board the ship and the chain of fraudulent transactions that culminated in multiple deaths are a sinister background element, revealing themselves only in fleeting glimpses of detail or inference yet casting a deepening shadow over all that transpires. Certain individuals may question 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 uncertain.

Experimental Writing: Art and Morality Fused

There will be others—and I count myself as among them—who will become enamored with Nordenhof's endeavor purely as written art, as truly experimental literature whose moral and artistic purpose are so profoundly entwined as to make them inseparable. “Compose verses / for we need / that as well.” There is another fire here: a passionate, magnetic devotion to the craft as a political act. I will continue to pursue this series, wherever it goes.