Description

A groundbreaking, profound and intimate novel about capitalism’s effects on the human heart: Money to Burn is the first volume of the Scandinavian Star series, a new masterpiece of Danish literature

‘Buzzes with electricity… intriguing, maddening, exciting. I’m in’ Observer

‘Taut and intelligent… a moving love story and an incendiary indictment of contemporary society’ Literary Review

Maggie and Kurt are struggling to hold their marriage together after their only daughter has left home. They live in an old farmhouse in Nyborg but somehow keep missing each other, unable to discuss the events that brought them together.

Decades ago, a passenger ferry called the Scandinavian Star caught fire, killing 159 people. The event is still considered a national tragedy in Denmark and Norway. Years later, it was revealed not to be an accident, but the result of an insurance scam gone wrong.

How is the Scandinavian Star disaster connected to Maggie and Kurt? How does money affect and infect our closest relationships? And is it ever possible to escape?

‘A comet in Scandinavian literature’ OLGA RAVN

‘Startling and irresistible’ CLAIRE-LOUISE BENNETT

‘Unusual, fascinating, and complicated in the best way’ CLAIRE FULLER

‘Nordenhof’s writing is electrifying’ CHETNA MAROO

Publisher Review

Nordenhof's first novel isn't like others. That's one of the reasons why Money to Burn sets the bar so unbelievably high for the coming volumes of what can already be dubbed the most ambitious literary project of the 2020s * Jyllands-Posten * How do you write a social-realistic, political novel about capitalism in the 21st century? This is how you do it! * Politiken * Money to Burn signals the start of a new masterpiece of Nordic literature * Dag og Tid * Nordenhof's writing crackles with indignation, conviction, ferocious wit, and savvy human insight. Startling, irresistible, and thoroughly enlivening, reading her words is not unlike looking at the entrancing flames of a tremendous fire -- Claire-Louise Bennett, author of Checkout 19 A comet in Scandinavian literature. Her sentences are like lightning, they hold great beauty and destruction. Funny, furious and masterful - Money to Burn is a declaration of war against capitalism -- Olga Ravn, author of My Work Unbelievably good. I can't think of anyone apart from Kristen Thorup, who in the last decades has written so compassionately and vividly and at the same time so unsentimental about people on the fringes of the wealthy lives of the welfare state * Information * It contains both the scale of a grand epic with the careful and clarified language of a Claire Keegan novel. So rich in its storytelling, sense of place and characterisation that even in its darkest moments it's impossible to look away [...] Entirely intoxicating and compulsive, this is a story in the hands of an utterly remarkable writer, and has me very much desperate to read more. Perfect -- Ore Agbaje-Williams Money to Burn is ambitious in its structure and narrative, but Nordenhof carries it off with ease. Unusual, fascinating, and complicated in the best way -- Claire Fuller, author of Unsettled Ground