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In the late night of the 7th of April 1990, a devastating fire erupted on board the ferry Scandinavian Star, a passenger ferry operating between Frederikshavn and Oslo. Inadequate crew preparedness along with jammed safety doors aided the propagation of the fire, while toxic hydrogen cyanide gas released from combusting materials caused the loss of 159 individuals. Initially, the disaster was attributed to a passenger—a lorry driver with a history of fire-setting. Given that this individual also perished in the fire and was unable to refute himself, the full truth about the disaster remained hidden for a long time. It wasn't until 2020 that a comprehensive investigation revealed the blaze was probably set intentionally as part of an fraud scheme.

Nordenhof's Scandinavian Star Series: An Overview

In the initial book of Nordenhof's Scandinavian Star sequence, the preceding volume, an unnamed narrator is traveling on a public transport through Copenhagen when she observes an older man on the sidewalk. As the bus drives away, she experiences an “eerie sense” that she is taking a piece of him with her. Driven to retrace the journey in search of him, the character finds herself in a setting that is both alien and strangely known. She introduces readers to a couple named Maggie and Kurt, whose connection is strained by the pressures of their troubled histories. In the final pages of that book, it is suggested that the root of the character's disaffection may stem from a poor financial decision made on his behalf by a man referred to as T.

This New Volume: A Unique Approach

This second installment opens with an extended poetic passage in which the narrator describes her struggle to write T's story. “Within this volume, two,” she writes, “we were supposed / to trace him / from youth up until / the evening / when he sat anticipating for / the report that / the fire / on the ferry / had effectively been / set.” Overwhelmed by the undertaking she has assigned herself and derailed by the pandemic, she approaches the story obliquely, as a type of allegory. “It occurred to me / that I / can do / anything I want / so this / is my book / this is / for you / this is / an sensational story / about entrepreneurs and / the dark force.”

A tale gradually emerges of a woman who experiences quarantine in London with a virtual stranger and over the course of those days tells to him what occurred to her a ten years earlier, when she agreed to an offer from a figure who professed to be the devil to grant all her wishes, so long as she didn't question his intentions. As the elements of the dual narratives become more interwoven, we start to suspect that they are one and the same—or at minimum that the nature of T is legion, for there are demonic forces everywhere.

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

Deals with the Devil: A Thematic Exploration

Classic stories teach us that it is the dark figure who makes deals, 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 story of a girl whose childhood was scarred by mistreatment and who spent time in a mental health facility, under duress to comply with social expectations or endure more of the same. “[The devil] understands that in the game you've created for it, there are two outcomes: surrender or remain a monster.” A third way out is finally revealed through a collection of verses to the darkness that are also a call to arms against the forces of capital.

Parallels and Interpretations: From Fiction to Real Events

Many British readers of Nordenhof's series books will reflect right away of the London tower fire, which, though unintentional in origin, shares parallels in that the ensuing disaster and fatalities can be attributed at least partly to the dangerous trade-off of putting profit over people. In these initial volumes of what is planned to be a seven-book sequence, the blaze aboard the ferry and the chain of deceptive business deals that culminated in mass murder are a ominous background presence, showing themselves only in fleeting flashes of detail or inference yet projecting a deepening influence over all that occurs. Certain readers may doubt how much it is possible to read this volume as a independent work, when its aim and significance are so deeply bound into a broader narrative whose ultimate shape, at present, is uncertain.

Experimental Writing: Ethics and Aesthetics Fused

There will be others—and I count myself as one of them—who will become enamored with the author's endeavor purely as text, as properly innovative literature whose moral and artistic purpose are so profoundly interlinked as to make them inextricable. “Write poems / for we need / that as well.” Another kind of blaze exists: an intense, attractive devotion to the craft as a political act. I will continue to pursue this literary journey, wherever it goes.