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During the early hours of the 7th of April 1990, a catastrophic fire erupted on board the ferry Scandinavian Star, a passenger ferry traveling between Frederikshavn and Oslo. Insufficient crew training combined with jammed fire doors aided the propagation of the fire, while toxic cyanide gas released from combusting laminates caused the deaths of 159 individuals. At first, the tragedy was attributed to a traveler—a lorry driver with a record of fire-setting. Since this suspect also perished in the incident and was not able to refute the accusations, the complete facts about the disaster remained hidden for a long time. It wasn't until 2020 that a comprehensive investigation revealed the fire was likely started deliberately as part of an insurance fraud.

Nordenhof's Scandinavian Star Sequence: An Overview

In the initial book of Nordenhof's Scandinavian Star sequence, Money to Burn, an unidentified narrator is traveling on a bus through the Danish capital when she observes an elderly man on the sidewalk. As the bus moves away, she feels an “uncanny feeling” that she is taking a piece of him with her. Driven to retrace the route in pursuit of him, the narrator enters a setting that is both unfamiliar and deeply familiar. She introduces us to Maggie and Kurt, whose relationship is tested by the burdens of their conflicted histories. In the concluding section of that volume, it is implied that the source of Kurt's discontent may originate in a disastrous investment made on his behalf by a individual known as T.

This New Volume: A Unique Narrative Style

The Devil Book opens with an lengthy prose poem in which the narrator describes her struggle to write T's story. “Within this second volume,” she states, “we were supposed / to trace him / from childhood up until / the night / when he sat waiting for / the report that / the blaze / on the Scandinavian Star / had effectively been / ignited.” Overwhelmed by the undertaking she has set herself and disrupted by the pandemic, she tackles 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 sensational story / about entrepreneurs and / the devil.”

A narrative slowly unfolds of a female character who experiences lockdown in London with a virtual stranger and over the course of those days relates to him what occurred to her a decade before, when she agreed to an offer from a man who professed to be the evil entity to fulfill all her wishes, so long as she didn't doubt his motives. As the elements of the two stories become more intertwined, we begin to suspect that they are one and the same—or at the very least that the nature of T is legion, for there are demonic forces everywhere.

There is another fire here: a passionate, compelling commitment to writing as a political act

Deals with the Devil: A Thematic Exploration

Classic stories instruct us that it is the dark figure who makes deals, not God, and that we engage in them at our peril. But suppose the protagonist herself is the malevolent force? A third narrative comes finally to light—the account of a young woman whose early years was scarred by abuse and who spent time in a psychiatric hospital, under duress to conform with societal norms or endure more of the same. “[This entity] understands that in the game you've set for it, there are two outcomes: submit or remain a monster.” A alternative path is ultimately unveiled through a collection of poems to the darkness that are simultaneously a call to arms against the influences of wealth and power.

Parallels and Interpretations: From Fiction to Reality

Many UK readers of the author's Scandinavian Star books will think right away of the Grenfell Tower tragedy, which, though unintentional in cause, shares parallels in that the ensuing tragedy and fatalities can be attributed at least partly to the dangerous trade-off of prioritizing financial gain over human lives. In these initial volumes of what is projected to be a seven-book sequence, the blaze on board the ferry and the chain of fraudulent business deals that culminated in multiple deaths are a sinister underlying presence, showing themselves only in fleeting flashes of detail or inference yet casting a deepening influence over all that occurs. Certain readers may doubt how far it is feasible to read this volume as a independent work, when its purpose and meaning are so intricately bound into a broader whole whose final form, at this stage, is uncertain.

Experimental Writing: Art and Morality Intertwined

Some individuals—and I include myself as one of them—who will become enamored with the author's project purely as text, as truly experimental writing whose moral and creative purpose are so deeply entwined as to make them inseparable. “Compose verses / for we require / that as well.” There is another fire here: a passionate, attractive devotion to writing as a political act. I will persist to follow this series, wherever it leads.