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During the early hours of the 7th of April 1990, a catastrophic blaze erupted on board the MS Scandinavian Star, a passenger ferry traveling between Frederikshavn and Oslo. Insufficient staff training along with malfunctioning safety doors aided the spread of the fire, while toxic cyanide gas released from burning materials led to the loss of 159 people. At first, the tragedy was attributed to a traveler—a truck driver with a record of fire-setting. Since this suspect too died in the fire and was unable to defend himself, the complete truth regarding the disaster stayed hidden for a long time. Only in 2020 that a comprehensive documentary disclosed the fire was probably set deliberately as part of an fraud scheme.

Asta Olivia Nordenhof's Scandinavian Star Series: A Glimpse

Within the initial book of Asta Olivia Nordenhof's epic sequence, Money to Burn, an unnamed protagonist is traveling on a bus through Copenhagen when she notices an older man on the sidewalk. As the bus drives away, she experiences an “eerie sense” that she is carrying a piece of him with her. Driven to retrace the route in pursuit of him, the character enters a landscape that is both unfamiliar and deeply familiar. She introduces us to Maggie and Kurt, whose connection is tested by the pressures of their troubled histories. In the concluding section of that volume, it is implied that the root of the character's disaffection may originate in a disastrous investment made on his behalf by a individual known as T.

The Devil Book: A Unique Narrative Style

The Devil Book opens with an lengthy poetic passage in which the writer describes her struggle to compose T's narrative. “In this volume, two,” she states, “we were supposed / to trace him / from youth up until / the evening / when he sat anticipating for / the report that / the fire / on the Scandinavian Star / had effectively been / set.” Overwhelmed by the task she has assigned herself and disrupted by the pandemic, she approaches the story obliquely, as a form 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 sensational story / about businessmen and / the devil.”

A tale slowly unfolds of a female character who spends lockdown in London with a virtual stranger and over the course of those days tells to him what occurred to her a ten years before, when she agreed to an proposal from a figure who professed to be the evil entity to grant all her desires, so long as she didn't doubt his motives. As the elements of the two stories become more interwoven, we begin to believe that they are one and the same—or at minimum that the nature of T is legion, for there are devils everywhere.

Another blaze is present: a passionate, magnetic commitment to writing as a form of activism

Deals with the Devil: A Thematic Exploration

Literature teach us that it is the devil who does bargains, not a divine being, and that we enter into them at our peril. But suppose the narrator herself is the malevolent force? A additional narrative comes finally to light—the account of a girl whose early years was scarred by abuse and who spent time in a mental health facility, under duress to conform with societal norms or suffer further harm. “[The devil] knows that in the game you've set for it, there are two outcomes: surrender or remain a monster.” A third way out is finally revealed through a series of verses to the darkness that are simultaneously a call to arms against the forces of capital.

Parallels and Readings: From Fiction to Real Events

Many British readers of the author's series novels will think immediately of the Grenfell Tower tragedy, which, though unintentional in origin, bears parallels in that the resulting disaster 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 volumes of what is planned to be a multi-volume series, the fire on board the ferry and the chain of fraudulent transactions that ended in mass murder are a ominous underlying element, revealing themselves only in fleeting glimpses of detail or implication yet projecting a growing shadow over everything that occurs. Some readers may doubt how far it is possible to read The Devil Book as a independent piece, when its aim and significance are so intricately tied into a broader whole whose final form, at present, is unknowable.

Experimental Writing: Art and Morality Fused

Some individuals—and I include myself as among them—who will fall in love with Nordenhof's endeavor purely as written art, as truly innovative literature whose ethical and creative intent are so profoundly interlinked as to make them inextricable. “Write poems / for we require / that as well.” Another kind of blaze exists: a passionate, magnetic commitment to writing as a statement. I intend to continue to pursue this literary journey, no matter where it leads.