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In the early hours of April 7 1990, a devastating blaze erupted on board the MS Scandinavian Star, a car and passenger ferry operating between Oslo and Frederikshavn. Insufficient staff preparedness combined with jammed safety doors aided the propagation of the flames, while deadly cyanide gas emitted from burning laminates led to the deaths of 159 individuals. At first, the tragedy was attributed to a passenger—a truck driver with a record of fire-setting. Since this suspect too died in the fire and was unable to defend the accusations, the full truth about the event stayed concealed for many years. It wasn't until 2020 that a detailed documentary disclosed the fire was probably started intentionally as part of an fraud scheme.

Nordenhof's Scandinavian Star Series: A Glimpse

In the first volume of Nordenhof's epic series, the preceding volume, an unnamed protagonist is traveling on a bus through Copenhagen when she observes an elderly man on the sidewalk. As the bus moves away, she experiences an “uncanny feeling” that she is taking a part of him with her. Compelled to repeat the journey in search of him, the character enters a setting that is both alien and strangely known. She introduces readers to Maggie and Kurt, whose connection is strained by the pressures of their troubled pasts. In the concluding section of that volume, it is suggested that the source of the character's disaffection may stem from a disastrous financial decision made on his account by a man known as T.

The Devil Book: A Unique Narrative Style

The Devil Book begins with an lengthy prose poem in which the writer explains her challenge to compose T's story. “In this second volume,” she writes, “we were meant / to trace him / from youth up until / the evening / when he sat anticipating for / the news that / the fire / on the Scandinavian Star / had effectively been / ignited.” Burdened by the undertaking she has set herself and derailed by the global health crisis, she approaches the tale indirectly, as a form of allegory. “It occurred to me / that I / can do / anything I want / so this / is my work / this is / for you / this is / an sensational story / about businessmen and / the dark force.”

A tale gradually emerges of a female character who experiences lockdown in the UK capital with a near-unknown person and during those days tells to him what happened to her a decade earlier, when she accepted an proposal from a figure who claimed to be the evil entity to fulfill all her desires, so long as she didn't question his motives. As the threads of the dual narratives become more intertwined, we begin to suspect that they are one and the same—or at the very least that the identity of T is legion, for there are demonic forces all around.

Another blaze is present: an ardent, magnetic dedication to literature 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 narrator herself is the devil? A third storyline eventually emerges—the story of a young woman whose childhood was scarred by mistreatment and who spent time in a psychiatric hospital, under pressure to conform with societal norms or endure further harm. “[This entity] knows that in the scenario you've created for it, there are two outcomes: surrender or stay a beast.” A alternative path is ultimately unveiled through a series of verses to the night that are simultaneously a call to arms against the influences of capital.

Parallels and Interpretations: From Literature to Reality

Numerous UK audience members of Nordenhof's Scandinavian Star novels will reflect right away of the London tower tragedy, which, though unintentional in cause, shares parallels in that the resulting tragedy and loss of life can be attributed at in part to the dangerous trade-off of prioritizing profit over people. In these first two volumes of what is projected to be a multi-volume sequence, the fire on board the ship and the series of fraudulent transactions that ended in multiple deaths are a sinister background element, revealing themselves only in brief glimpses of information or implication yet casting a growing shadow over all that transpires. Certain individuals may doubt how much it is possible to interpret this volume as a stand-alone piece, when its aim and meaning are so deeply tied into a larger narrative whose ultimate shape, at this stage, is uncertain.

Experimental Writing: Ethics and Aesthetics 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 artistic purpose are so profoundly interlinked as to make them inseparable. “Compose verses / for we need / that as well.” Another kind of blaze exists: an intense, magnetic devotion to the craft as a statement. I intend to persist to follow this series, no matter where it leads.