The Devil Book Analysis: A Danish Literary Sequence Aflame with Intent

During the late night of the 7th of April 1990, a devastating blaze broke out aboard the ferry Scandinavian Star, a car and passenger ferry operating between Oslo and Frederikshavn. Insufficient staff preparedness along with malfunctioning safety doors accelerated the spread of the fire, while toxic cyanide gas emitted from combusting materials caused the loss of 159 people. Initially, the tragedy was attributed to a traveler—a lorry driver with a record of fire-setting. Given that this individual also died in the incident and was unable to defend the accusations, the complete truth regarding the disaster stayed concealed for many years. Only in 2020 that a detailed documentary revealed the blaze was likely set deliberately as part of an fraud scheme.

Nordenhof's Scandinavian Star Sequence: A Glimpse

Within the first volume of Nordenhof's epic series, the preceding volume, an unnamed narrator is traveling on a public transport through the Danish capital when she observes an elderly man on the street. As the bus drives away, she experiences an “eerie sense” that she is taking a part of him with her. Compelled to retrace the journey in search of him, the character enters a landscape that is both alien and deeply familiar. She presents readers to a couple named Maggie and Kurt, whose connection is strained by the burdens of their conflicted histories. In the concluding section of that volume, it is suggested that the source of Kurt's disaffection may originate in a disastrous investment made on his account by a man known as T.

This New Volume: An Unconventional Narrative Style

This second installment begins with an lengthy poetic passage in which the writer explains her challenge to compose T's narrative. “Within this volume, two,” 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 ferry / had effectively been / set.” Burdened by the undertaking she has assigned herself and derailed by the global health crisis, she approaches the story 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 tale slowly unfolds of a woman who spends lockdown in London with a virtual stranger and over the course of those weeks tells to him what occurred to her a ten years earlier, when she agreed to an offer from a figure who claimed to be the devil to fulfill all her wishes, so long as she didn't question his motives. As the elements of the dual narratives become more interwoven, we begin to believe that they are identical—or at minimum that the identity of T is multiple, for there are devils everywhere.

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

Deals with the Devil: A Literary Examination

Classic stories instruct us that it is the dark figure who makes deals, not God, and that we enter into them at our risk. But suppose the narrator herself is the malevolent force? A third narrative eventually emerges—the story of a young woman whose childhood was marred by mistreatment and who spent time in a psychiatric hospital, under duress to conform with societal norms or suffer more of the same. “[This entity] knows that in the scenario you've created for it, there are a pair of results: submit or remain a monster.” A third way out is ultimately unveiled through a series of poems to the darkness that are simultaneously a rallying cry against the influences of wealth and power.

Connections and Readings: From Fiction to Real Events

Numerous British audience members of Nordenhof's Scandinavian Star novels will reflect immediately of the London tower fire, which, though accidental in origin, shares similarities in that the ensuing tragedy and loss of life can be linked at in part to the devil's bargain of prioritizing profit over human lives. In these first two volumes of what is projected to be a multi-volume series, the fire on board the ship and the chain of fraudulent business deals that culminated in multiple deaths are a ominous background element, revealing themselves only in fleeting flashes of information or implication yet casting a growing influence over all that occurs. Certain readers may doubt how far it is feasible to interpret this volume as a stand-alone work, when its purpose and meaning are so deeply tied into a broader narrative whose ultimate shape, at present, is uncertain.

Experimental Writing: Art and Morality Intertwined

There will be others—and I include myself as one of them—who will fall in love with Nordenhof's project purely as text, as truly experimental writing whose ethical and creative purpose are so profoundly interlinked as to make them inextricable. “Compose verses / for we need / that as well.” Another kind of blaze exists: an intense, magnetic commitment to the craft as a political act. I will continue to follow this series, no matter where it leads.