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In the early hours of April 7 1990, a devastating blaze erupted aboard the ferry Scandinavian Star, a car and passenger ferry traveling between Frederikshavn and Oslo. Inadequate staff training combined with jammed safety doors aided the spread of the flames, while deadly hydrogen cyanide gas emitted from burning materials led to the loss of 159 people. At first, the disaster was blamed to a passenger—a lorry driver with a history of fire-setting. Since this suspect also died in the fire and was unable to defend himself, the full facts regarding the event stayed hidden for many years. It wasn't until 2020 that a comprehensive documentary revealed the fire was likely started intentionally as part of an fraud scheme.

Nordenhof's Literary Series: A Glimpse

Within the first volume of Nordenhof's epic sequence, Money to Burn, an unidentified narrator is riding on a public transport through Copenhagen when she observes an elderly man on the sidewalk. As the vehicle drives away, she experiences an “uncanny feeling” that she is carrying a piece of him with her. Driven to retrace the journey in pursuit of him, the narrator finds herself in a landscape that is both unfamiliar and strangely known. She introduces us to Maggie and Kurt, whose connection is strained by the pressures of their troubled pasts. In the final pages of that volume, it is suggested that the source of the character's discontent may stem from a disastrous financial decision made on his behalf by a man known as T.

This New Volume: A Unique Approach

This second installment opens with an lengthy prose poem in which the writer explains her challenge to compose T's narrative. “Within this second volume,” she states, “we were supposed / to follow him / from youth up until / the evening / when he sat anticipating for / the news that / the fire / on the ferry / had effectively been / set.” Burdened by the task she has assigned herself and derailed by the global health crisis, she tackles the tale obliquely, as a type of parable. “It occurred to me / 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 dark force.”

A tale slowly emerges of a female character who experiences quarantine in the UK capital with a virtual stranger and during those weeks tells to him what occurred to her a ten years before, when she accepted an proposal from a figure who claimed to be the devil to grant all her wishes, so long as she didn't doubt his intentions. 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 nature of T is legion, for there are devils everywhere.

Another blaze is present: a passionate, compelling dedication to literature as a political act

Pacts and Consequences: A Thematic Examination

Literature instruct us that it is the dark figure who makes bargains, not God, and that we engage in them at our peril. But suppose the protagonist herself is the devil? A third narrative comes finally to light—the account of a girl whose early years was marred by abuse and who spent time in a mental health facility, under duress to comply with societal norms or suffer more of the same. “[This entity] knows that in the scenario you've set for it, there are a pair of outcomes: surrender or remain a beast.” A alternative path is finally revealed through a collection of verses to the night that are also a rallying cry against the forces of capital.

Parallels and Readings: From Literature to Reality

Numerous UK readers of Nordenhof's series novels will reflect right away of the London tower tragedy, which, though unintentional in origin, bears similarities in that the resulting disaster and loss of life can be linked at least partly to the devil's bargain of prioritizing financial gain 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 fraudulent transactions that ended in mass murder are a ominous underlying element, revealing themselves only in brief glimpses of information or implication yet projecting a deepening shadow over everything that occurs. Certain individuals may doubt how far it is feasible to read The Devil Book as a independent piece, when its aim and meaning are so intricately bound into a larger whole whose ultimate shape, at this stage, is uncertain.

Experimental Writing: Art and Morality Intertwined

There will be others—and I count myself as one of them—who will fall in love with Nordenhof's project purely as text, as truly experimental literature whose ethical and creative purpose are so profoundly interlinked as to make them inseparable. “Compose verses / for we require / that as well.” There is another fire here: a passionate, attractive devotion to the craft as a political act. I will continue to follow this literary journey, wherever it goes.