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In the late night of April 7 1990, a catastrophic blaze erupted on board the ferry Scandinavian Star, a car and passenger ferry traveling between Oslo and Frederikshavn. Insufficient crew preparedness along with jammed safety doors accelerated the spread of the fire, while deadly cyanide gas emitted from burning laminates caused the deaths of 159 people. At first, the disaster was attributed to a passenger—a truck driver with a record of arson. Since this individual too died in the incident and was unable to defend himself, the complete facts about the disaster remained hidden for a long time. It wasn't until 2020 that a detailed investigation revealed the fire was probably started deliberately as part of an fraud scheme.

Nordenhof's Scandinavian Star Series: A Glimpse

In the initial book of Nordenhof's Scandinavian Star sequence, the preceding volume, an unnamed narrator is riding on a bus through Copenhagen when she notices an elderly man on the sidewalk. As the vehicle drives away, she experiences an “eerie sense” that she is carrying a piece of him with her. Driven to retrace the journey in search of him, the character enters a setting that is both unfamiliar and strangely known. She presents us to Maggie and Kurt, whose connection is tested by the burdens of their conflicted pasts. In the concluding section of that book, it is implied that the root of Kurt's discontent may originate in a poor financial decision made on his account by a individual referred to as T.

The Devil Book: An Unconventional Narrative Style

This second installment begins with an lengthy prose poem in which the narrator describes her challenge to compose T's story. “Within this volume, two,” she writes, “we were supposed / to follow him / from youth up until / the evening / when he sat anticipating for / the report that / the fire / on the ferry / had effectively been / set.” Overwhelmed by the undertaking she has set herself and derailed by the pandemic, she tackles the tale indirectly, as a form of allegory. “I came to think / that I / can do / whatever I want / so this / is my book / this is / for you / this is / an erotic thriller / about entrepreneurs and / the dark force.”

A narrative slowly emerges of a female character who experiences lockdown in the UK capital with a near-unknown person and during those days relates to him what occurred to her a decade earlier, when she accepted an proposal from a man who claimed to be the devil to grant all her desires, so long as she didn't question his motives. As the threads 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 legion, for there are devils everywhere.

Another blaze is present: a passionate, magnetic commitment to writing as a form of activism

Deals with the Devil: A Literary Examination

Literature teach us that it is the devil who makes deals, not a divine being, and that we engage in them at our peril. But suppose the narrator herself is the devil? A additional storyline eventually emerges—the account of a girl whose early years was marred by abuse and who was placed in a psychiatric hospital, under duress to comply with social expectations or endure more of the same. “[The devil] understands that in the scenario you've created for it, there are two results: submit or stay a monster.” A alternative path is ultimately unveiled through a series of verses to the night that are simultaneously a rallying cry against the forces of wealth and power.

Parallels and Interpretations: From Literature to Real Events

Numerous UK readers of Nordenhof's series novels will think immediately of the Grenfell Tower fire, which, though accidental in cause, shares parallels in that the ensuing disaster and fatalities can be linked at in part to the devil's bargain of prioritizing financial gain over human lives. In these first two volumes of what is planned to be a seven-book sequence, the blaze on board the ship and the chain of fraudulent transactions that ended in multiple deaths are a sinister underlying presence, revealing themselves only in fleeting flashes of detail or inference yet projecting a growing influence over everything that transpires. Some individuals may question how far it is feasible to read The Devil Book as a independent piece, when its purpose and significance are so deeply tied into a larger whole whose ultimate shape, at this stage, is uncertain.

Innovative Prose: Art and Morality Intertwined

Some individuals—and I include myself as one of them—who will become enamored with the author's endeavor purely as text, as truly experimental literature whose moral and artistic purpose are so profoundly interlinked as to make them inextricable. “Write poems / for we require / that too.” There is another fire here: an intense, magnetic commitment to writing as a political act. I intend to continue to follow this literary journey, no matter where it goes.