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In the late night of April 7 1990, a devastating fire erupted on board the MS Scandinavian Star, a car and passenger ferry operating between Frederikshavn and Oslo. Insufficient crew training combined with malfunctioning safety doors aided the spread of the flames, while deadly cyanide gas released from combusting materials led to the loss of 159 individuals. At first, the tragedy was attributed to a traveler—a truck driver with a history of arson. Since this suspect too perished in the incident and was not able to refute the accusations, the full truth regarding the event stayed concealed for a long time. Only in 2020 that a comprehensive documentary revealed the fire was probably set intentionally as part of an insurance fraud.

Nordenhof's Scandinavian Star Series: An Overview

Within the initial book of Nordenhof's Scandinavian Star sequence, the preceding volume, an unnamed protagonist is riding on a bus through the Danish capital when she observes an elderly man on the sidewalk. As the vehicle moves away, she experiences an “uncanny feeling” that she is carrying a part of him with her. Driven to repeat the journey in search of him, the narrator finds herself in a landscape that is both unfamiliar and strangely known. She introduces readers to a couple named Maggie and Kurt, whose connection is tested by the pressures of their conflicted histories. In the final pages of that book, it is suggested that the source of Kurt's discontent may originate in a poor investment made on his account by a man known as T.

The Devil Book: An Unconventional Narrative Style

The Devil Book begins with an lengthy poetic passage in which the writer describes her struggle to write T's story. “Within this second volume,” she states, “we were meant / to follow him / from childhood up until / the evening / 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 derailed by the global health crisis, 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 book / this is / for you / this is / an erotic thriller / about businessmen and / the devil.”

A narrative gradually unfolds of a female character who spends 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 agreed to an proposal from a figure who professed to be the evil entity to fulfill all her wishes, so long as she didn't doubt his intentions. As the elements of the dual narratives become more interwoven, we begin to believe that they are one and the same—or at minimum that the nature of T is legion, for there are demonic forces everywhere.

There is another fire here: an ardent, magnetic commitment to writing as a political act

Pacts and Consequences: A Thematic Examination

Classic stories instruct us that it is the dark figure who does deals, not a divine being, and that we enter into them at our risk. But what if the narrator herself is the devil? A additional narrative eventually emerges—the story of a girl whose childhood was marred by abuse and who was placed in a psychiatric hospital, under pressure to conform with social expectations or suffer further harm. “[This entity] knows that in the scenario you've created for it, there are a pair of outcomes: submit or stay a beast.” A third way out is finally revealed through a series of verses to the night that are also a rallying cry against the forces of wealth and power.

Connections and Readings: From Fiction to Real Events

Many UK readers of Nordenhof's Scandinavian Star novels will reflect right away of the Grenfell Tower tragedy, which, though accidental in origin, bears parallels in that the ensuing tragedy and loss of life can be linked at least partly to the devil's bargain of putting financial gain over human lives. In these initial books of what is projected to be a seven-book series, the fire on board the ferry and the series of deceptive transactions that culminated in multiple deaths are a ominous underlying element, showing themselves only in fleeting flashes of detail or implication yet casting a growing shadow over all that occurs. Certain readers may question how far it is feasible to interpret The Devil Book as a independent work, when its aim and significance are so intricately tied into a broader narrative whose final form, at this stage, is uncertain.

Innovative Prose: Art and Morality Intertwined

There will be others—and I include myself as among them—who will fall in love with the author's project purely as written art, as properly experimental literature whose ethical and artistic intent are so profoundly interlinked as to make them inextricable. “Compose verses / for we require / that as well.” Another kind of blaze exists: a passionate, magnetic commitment to writing as a statement. I will persist to follow this literary journey, wherever it goes.