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In the late night of April 7 1990, a catastrophic blaze broke out on board the ferry Scandinavian Star, a car and passenger ferry operating between Oslo and Frederikshavn. Insufficient crew preparedness along with jammed fire doors aided the spread of the flames, while deadly hydrogen cyanide gas released from combusting materials led to the loss of 159 people. Initially, the tragedy was attributed to a traveler—a lorry driver with a history of arson. Since this individual also died in the fire and was not able to refute himself, the complete truth about the disaster remained hidden for a long time. Only in 2020 that a detailed documentary revealed the fire was probably started intentionally as part of an fraud scheme.

Nordenhof's Literary Series: An Overview

Within the first volume of Nordenhof's epic series, the preceding volume, an unidentified narrator is traveling on a bus through Copenhagen when she notices an older man on the sidewalk. As the bus drives away, she feels an “eerie sense” that she is taking a part of him with her. Compelled to retrace the journey in search of him, the narrator enters a setting that is both alien and deeply familiar. She introduces us to Maggie and Kurt, whose relationship is tested by the burdens of their troubled histories. In the concluding section of that volume, it is suggested that the source of the character's discontent may stem from a disastrous financial decision made on his account by a individual known as T.

This New Volume: An Unconventional Approach

This second installment begins with an lengthy prose poem in which the writer describes her challenge to compose T's story. “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 Scandinavian Star / had effectively been / set.” Overwhelmed by the task she has set herself and derailed by the pandemic, she approaches the tale indirectly, as a type of allegory. “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 narrative slowly emerges of a female character who spends quarantine in the UK capital with a virtual stranger and over the course of those days relates to him what happened to her a ten years earlier, when she accepted an offer from a figure who claimed to be the evil entity to fulfill all her wishes, so long as she didn't question his motives. As the threads of the dual narratives become more intertwined, we start to believe that they are identical—or at minimum that the identity of T is legion, for there are devils everywhere.

Another blaze is present: an ardent, compelling dedication to writing as a political act

Pacts and Consequences: A Literary Exploration

Classic stories instruct us that it is the devil who does bargains, not a divine being, and that we engage in them at our peril. But suppose the narrator herself is the malevolent force? A additional storyline comes finally to light—the story of a young woman whose early years was marred by abuse and who was placed in a psychiatric hospital, under pressure to conform with social expectations or endure further harm. “[The devil] understands that in the scenario you've set for it, there are a pair of outcomes: submit or remain a monster.” A alternative path is ultimately unveiled through a collection of verses to the darkness that are also a call to arms against the forces of wealth and power.

Connections and Interpretations: From Literature to Reality

Numerous UK audience members of Nordenhof's series books will reflect right away of the Grenfell Tower tragedy, which, though unintentional in cause, bears similarities in that the ensuing tragedy and loss of life can be attributed at in part to the dangerous trade-off of prioritizing financial gain over human lives. In these first two books of what is planned to be a multi-volume series, the blaze aboard the ferry and the series of deceptive business deals that ended in mass murder are a sinister underlying element, showing themselves only in fleeting flashes of information or implication yet projecting a deepening shadow over everything that transpires. Certain readers may question how far it is feasible to read this volume as a independent work, when its purpose and meaning are so deeply tied into a larger whole whose ultimate shape, at present, is unknowable.

Innovative Prose: Ethics and Aesthetics Intertwined

There will be others—and I include myself as among them—who will become enamored with Nordenhof's project purely as text, as properly experimental writing whose moral and artistic purpose are so deeply interlinked as to make them inextricable. “Write poems / for we need / that too.” Another kind of blaze exists: a passionate, magnetic commitment to the craft as a statement. I intend to persist to pursue this literary journey, wherever it leads.