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During the early hours of April 7 1990, a catastrophic fire broke out aboard the ferry Scandinavian Star, a passenger ferry traveling between Frederikshavn and Oslo. Insufficient staff preparedness along with malfunctioning fire doors accelerated the propagation of the fire, while toxic cyanide gas emitted from combusting materials led to the loss of 159 individuals. Initially, the disaster was blamed to a passenger—a truck driver with a history of fire-setting. Since this suspect also perished in the fire and was not able to refute himself, the complete facts regarding the event remained concealed for a long time. Only in 2020 that a comprehensive investigation disclosed the fire was likely set deliberately as part of an insurance fraud.

Asta Olivia Nordenhof's Scandinavian Star Sequence: A Glimpse

In the initial book of Nordenhof's epic sequence, Money to Burn, an unnamed protagonist is riding on a public transport through the Danish capital when she notices an older man on the street. As the vehicle moves away, she experiences an “eerie sense” that she is carrying a part of him with her. Driven to retrace the journey in pursuit of him, the narrator enters a landscape that is both unfamiliar and strangely known. She presents us to a couple named Maggie and Kurt, whose relationship is strained by the burdens of their conflicted histories. In the concluding section of that volume, it is implied that the source of Kurt's discontent may stem from a poor investment made on his behalf by a individual referred to as T.

The Devil Book: An Unconventional Approach

The Devil Book begins with an lengthy prose poem in which the writer explains her challenge to compose T's story. “In this volume, two,” she states, “we were meant / to follow him / from youth up until / the evening / when he sat waiting for / the news that / the fire / on the Scandinavian Star / had successfully been / set.” Burdened by the task she has assigned herself and derailed by the global health crisis, she approaches the tale indirectly, as a type of parable. “I came to think / 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 devil.”

A narrative gradually emerges of a woman who experiences lockdown in the UK capital with a near-unknown person and during those weeks tells to him what happened to her a ten years before, when she agreed to an offer from a man who claimed to be the evil entity to grant all her wishes, so long as she didn't question his motives. As the threads of the two stories become more interwoven, we begin to suspect that they are one and the same—or at the very least that the nature of T is legion, for there are demonic forces everywhere.

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

Pacts and Consequences: A Literary Exploration

Literature teach us that it is the dark figure who does deals, not a divine being, and that we engage in them at our risk. But suppose the narrator herself is the devil? A third storyline eventually emerges—the story of a young woman whose early years was marred by abuse and who was placed in a psychiatric hospital, under duress to conform with societal norms or endure further harm. “[This entity] knows that in the game you've set for it, there are two outcomes: surrender or remain a monster.” A alternative path is ultimately revealed through a series of verses to the darkness that are also a call to arms against the forces of capital.

Parallels and Readings: From Literature to Reality

Many UK audience members of Nordenhof's Scandinavian Star books will think immediately of the Grenfell Tower tragedy, which, though accidental in cause, shares parallels in that the resulting disaster and fatalities can be linked at least partly to the dangerous trade-off of prioritizing financial gain over human lives. In these initial books of what is projected to be a seven-book series, the fire aboard the ferry and the chain of fraudulent transactions that ended in mass murder are a ominous background presence, revealing themselves only in brief flashes of information or inference yet projecting a growing influence over everything that occurs. Some readers may question how far it is possible to interpret The Devil Book as a independent piece, when its purpose and significance are so intricately tied into a broader narrative whose ultimate shape, at this stage, is uncertain.

Experimental Writing: Art and Morality Intertwined

Some individuals—and I include myself as among them—who will fall in love with Nordenhof's project purely as written art, as properly experimental literature whose moral and creative intent are so deeply interlinked as to make them inextricable. “Write poems / for we need / that as well.” There is another fire here: a passionate, magnetic devotion to the craft as a statement. I will persist to follow this series, no matter where it goes.