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During the early hours of the 7th of April 1990, a devastating blaze broke out aboard the ferry Scandinavian Star, a passenger ferry traveling between Oslo and Frederikshavn. Inadequate staff training combined with malfunctioning fire doors accelerated the spread of the flames, while deadly hydrogen cyanide gas released from burning materials caused the loss of 159 people. At first, the tragedy was attributed to a traveler—a lorry driver with a record of arson. Since this suspect too perished in the fire and was unable to defend the accusations, the complete facts about the disaster stayed hidden for many years. Only in 2020 that a detailed investigation disclosed the blaze was probably started deliberately as part of an fraud scheme.

Nordenhof's Literary Sequence: An Overview

In the first volume of Nordenhof's epic sequence, Money to Burn, an unidentified protagonist is traveling on a public transport through the Danish capital when she observes an elderly man on the sidewalk. As the bus moves away, she experiences an “uncanny feeling” that she is carrying a piece of him with her. Driven to repeat the journey in search of him, the character enters a setting that is both alien and strangely known. She presents us to a couple named Maggie and Kurt, whose relationship is tested by the burdens of their conflicted pasts. In the final pages of that book, it is suggested that the root of Kurt's discontent may originate in a disastrous financial decision made on his behalf by a man known as T.

The Devil Book: An Unconventional Approach

The Devil Book begins with an extended prose poem in which the narrator describes her struggle to compose T's narrative. “Within this second volume,” she states, “we were meant / to trace him / from youth up until / the night / when he sat waiting for / the report that / the blaze / on the Scandinavian Star / had effectively been / ignited.” Burdened by the task she has assigned herself and derailed by the global health crisis, she tackles the story indirectly, as a type of parable. “It occurred to me / 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 dark force.”

A narrative slowly unfolds of a woman who experiences lockdown in London with a near-unknown person and during those weeks relates to him what occurred to her a ten years before, when she agreed to an offer from a man who claimed to be the devil to fulfill all her desires, so long as she didn't doubt his motives. As the threads of the two stories become more intertwined, we start to believe that they are identical—or at the very least that the nature of T is multiple, for there are demonic forces everywhere.

Another blaze is present: a passionate, magnetic dedication to writing as a political act

Pacts and Consequences: A Literary Exploration

Literature teach us that it is the devil who makes bargains, not God, and that we enter into them at our peril. But what if the protagonist herself is the devil? A third narrative eventually emerges—the account of a girl whose childhood was marred by abuse and who spent time in a mental health facility, under duress to conform with social expectations or endure further harm. “[The devil] understands that in the game you've set for it, there are a pair of outcomes: submit or stay a beast.” A alternative path is ultimately revealed through a series of verses to the night that are also a call to arms against the forces of wealth and power.

Connections and Interpretations: From Literature to Reality

Numerous British readers of the author's Scandinavian Star novels will think immediately of the London tower tragedy, which, though unintentional in cause, bears parallels in that the ensuing disaster and fatalities can be attributed 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 seven-book sequence, the fire aboard the ferry and the series of deceptive business deals that ended in mass murder are a ominous underlying element, revealing themselves only in fleeting flashes of information or implication yet projecting a growing influence over everything that occurs. Certain readers may doubt how much it is possible to read The Devil Book as a independent work, when its aim and significance are so deeply bound into a broader narrative whose ultimate shape, at present, is uncertain.

Innovative Prose: Art and Morality Intertwined

Some individuals—and I include myself as among them—who will fall in love with Nordenhof's endeavor purely as written art, as properly experimental writing whose moral and artistic purpose are so deeply entwined as to make them inextricable. “Compose verses / for we need / that too.” Another kind of blaze exists: a passionate, attractive devotion to writing as a political act. I will continue to follow this literary journey, no matter where it goes.