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During the early hours of the 7th of April 1990, a catastrophic fire broke out on board the MS Scandinavian Star, a passenger ferry traveling between Oslo and Frederikshavn. Inadequate staff training combined with jammed fire doors accelerated the propagation of the fire, while deadly cyanide gas emitted from burning materials led to the loss of 159 people. Initially, the tragedy was blamed to a passenger—a lorry driver with a history of fire-setting. Given that this individual also died in the fire and was not able to refute himself, the full truth regarding the disaster remained hidden for a long time. Only in 2020 that a comprehensive investigation disclosed the blaze was probably set intentionally as part of an fraud scheme.

Asta Olivia Nordenhof's Literary Sequence: A Glimpse

In the initial book of Nordenhof's epic series, Money to Burn, an unidentified narrator is traveling on a bus through the Danish capital when she notices an older man on the sidewalk. As the bus moves away, she feels an “eerie sense” that she is taking a piece of him with her. Compelled to retrace the route in search of him, the narrator finds herself in a setting that is both alien and strangely known. She presents readers to Maggie and Kurt, whose relationship is tested by the pressures of their troubled pasts. In the concluding section of that volume, it is implied that the root of Kurt's discontent may stem from a poor financial decision made on his account by a man known as T.

The Devil Book: A Unique Approach

This second installment begins with an lengthy poetic passage in which the narrator describes her struggle to write T's story. “In this second volume,” she states, “we were meant / to follow him / from childhood up until / the night / when he sat anticipating for / the news that / the fire / on the ferry / had successfully been / set.” Burdened by the undertaking she has set herself and disrupted by the pandemic, she tackles 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 gradually emerges of a woman who experiences quarantine in London with a near-unknown person and during those days relates to him what happened to her a decade earlier, when she agreed to an proposal from a figure who professed to be the evil entity to grant all her wishes, so long as she didn't question his motives. As the elements of the two stories become more intertwined, we begin to suspect that they are identical—or at the very least that the identity of T is multiple, for there are devils everywhere.

There is another fire here: an ardent, compelling dedication to writing as a form of activism

Deals with the Devil: A Thematic Examination

Literature teach us that it is the devil who does 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 account of a girl whose childhood was scarred by mistreatment and who was placed in a mental health facility, under duress to comply with social expectations or endure more of the same. “[The devil] knows that in the scenario you've set for it, there are a pair of outcomes: surrender or remain a beast.” A third way out is ultimately revealed through a collection of verses to the night that are simultaneously a call to arms against the influences of capital.

Parallels and Interpretations: From Fiction to Real Events

Many UK readers of Nordenhof's series books will think immediately of the Grenfell Tower tragedy, which, though accidental in origin, bears parallels in that the resulting disaster and fatalities can be attributed at least partly to the devil's bargain of prioritizing financial gain over people. In these first two books of what is planned to be a multi-volume series, the blaze on board the ferry and the chain of fraudulent transactions that ended in multiple deaths are a sinister background element, showing themselves only in brief flashes of detail or implication yet projecting a growing shadow over everything that transpires. Some readers may question how much it is possible to read The Devil Book as a stand-alone piece, when its aim and significance are so deeply tied into a larger whole whose ultimate shape, at present, is unknowable.

Experimental Writing: Ethics and Aesthetics Intertwined

There will be others—and I count myself as one of them—who will fall in love with Nordenhof's project purely as text, as properly innovative writing whose ethical and creative purpose are so deeply entwined as to make them inseparable. “Write poems / for we require / that as well.” There is another fire here: a passionate, magnetic commitment to the craft as a statement. I intend to continue to follow this series, no matter where it goes.