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During the early hours of April 7 1990, a catastrophic fire erupted on board the ferry Scandinavian Star, a passenger ferry operating between Frederikshavn and Oslo. Insufficient staff preparedness combined with malfunctioning safety doors aided the propagation of the fire, while toxic hydrogen cyanide gas released from combusting laminates caused the deaths of 159 people. Initially, the disaster was blamed to a passenger—a truck driver with a history of fire-setting. Since this suspect too died in the incident and was unable to refute himself, the complete facts about the event stayed concealed for many years. Only in 2020 that a detailed documentary revealed the blaze was likely started intentionally as part of an insurance fraud.

Nordenhof's Scandinavian Star Series: A Glimpse

Within the initial book of Nordenhof's Scandinavian Star series, the preceding volume, an unidentified protagonist is traveling on a public transport through the Danish capital when she observes an older man on the sidewalk. As the vehicle drives away, she experiences an “eerie sense” that she is taking a piece of him with her. Compelled to repeat the route in pursuit of him, the narrator enters a setting that is both alien and deeply familiar. She presents us to Maggie and Kurt, whose connection is strained by the pressures of their conflicted pasts. In the final pages of that book, it is suggested that the root of the character's disaffection may originate in a disastrous investment made on his behalf by a individual referred to as T.

The Devil Book: A Unique Approach

The Devil Book opens with an lengthy poetic passage in which the narrator explains her struggle to write T's narrative. “In 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 fire / on the ferry / had effectively been / ignited.” Overwhelmed by the undertaking she has set herself and derailed by the pandemic, she approaches the tale indirectly, as a type 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 devil.”

A narrative slowly unfolds of a woman who experiences quarantine in London with a near-unknown person and over the course of those weeks relates to him what occurred to her a decade before, when she accepted an proposal from a man who claimed to be the evil entity to fulfill 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 believe that they are identical—or at the very least that the identity of T is legion, for there are devils all around.

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

Pacts and Consequences: A Literary Examination

Literature instruct us that it is the dark figure who makes bargains, not a divine being, and that we engage in them at our peril. But what if the protagonist herself is the devil? A third storyline comes finally to light—the account of a young woman whose childhood was marred by abuse and who was placed in a psychiatric hospital, under pressure to comply with social expectations or endure more of the same. “[This entity] knows that in the game you've set for it, there are a pair of results: surrender or stay a beast.” A third way out is ultimately unveiled through a series of poems to the night that are simultaneously a call to arms against the forces of capital.

Parallels and Readings: From Fiction to Reality

Numerous UK readers of the author's series novels will reflect immediately of the Grenfell Tower fire, which, though unintentional in origin, shares parallels in that the ensuing disaster and fatalities can be attributed at least partly to the dangerous trade-off of prioritizing financial gain over people. In these initial books of what is planned to be a seven-book series, the blaze aboard the ferry and the chain of deceptive transactions that culminated in multiple deaths are a sinister underlying element, revealing themselves only in fleeting flashes of information or implication yet casting a deepening influence over everything that occurs. Some readers may question how much it is feasible to read this volume as a independent piece, when its aim and significance are so deeply tied into a larger whole whose ultimate shape, at this stage, is unknowable.

Experimental Writing: Art and Morality Fused

Some individuals—and I count myself as one of them—who will become enamored with Nordenhof's endeavor purely as text, as truly experimental writing whose ethical and artistic intent are so profoundly interlinked as to make them inseparable. “Write poems / for we need / that as well.” Another kind of blaze exists: a passionate, magnetic devotion to the craft as a statement. I will continue to follow this series, no matter where it goes.