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In the early hours of the 7th of April 1990, a devastating blaze broke out on board the MS Scandinavian Star, a passenger ferry traveling between Oslo and Frederikshavn. Inadequate staff preparedness along with malfunctioning safety doors aided the propagation of the fire, while deadly cyanide gas released from burning materials led to the loss of 159 individuals. Initially, the disaster was blamed to a passenger—a truck driver with a history of arson. Since this suspect also perished in the incident and was not able to defend himself, the full truth about the disaster remained hidden for a long time. It wasn't until 2020 that a detailed investigation disclosed the blaze was probably set intentionally as part of an insurance fraud.

Asta Olivia Nordenhof's Literary Series: An Overview

Within the first volume of Nordenhof's epic sequence, the preceding volume, an unidentified narrator is traveling on a bus through Copenhagen when she observes an elderly man on the sidewalk. As the vehicle moves away, she experiences an “uncanny feeling” that she is carrying a part of him with her. Compelled to repeat the journey in pursuit of him, the character finds herself in a landscape that is both alien and deeply familiar. She introduces us to a couple named Maggie and Kurt, whose connection is tested by the burdens of their troubled histories. In the final pages of that book, it is implied that the source of the character's discontent may originate in a disastrous investment made on his behalf by a man known as T.

The Devil Book: A Unique Narrative Style

The Devil Book begins with an lengthy prose poem in which the narrator explains her struggle to write T's story. “Within this volume, two,” she states, “we were meant / to trace him / from youth up until / the evening / when he sat waiting for / the news that / the fire / on the ferry / had effectively been / set.” Burdened by the undertaking she has assigned herself and derailed by the global health crisis, 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 work / this is / for you / this is / an sensational story / about businessmen and / the devil.”

A narrative slowly emerges of a female character who spends lockdown in London with a near-unknown person and over the course of those days tells to him what happened to her a ten years before, when she agreed to an offer from a figure who claimed to be the evil entity to fulfill all her desires, so long as she didn't doubt his intentions. 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.

Another blaze is present: an ardent, magnetic dedication to literature as a political act

Pacts and Consequences: A Thematic Examination

Classic stories teach us that it is the dark figure who does bargains, not God, and that we enter into them at our peril. But what if the protagonist herself is the devil? A third narrative comes finally to light—the story of a girl whose childhood was scarred by mistreatment and who was placed in a psychiatric hospital, under duress to comply with societal norms or endure further harm. “[The devil] knows that in the game you've set for it, there are a pair of outcomes: submit or remain a monster.” A third way out is finally unveiled through a collection of verses to the darkness that are also a call to arms against the forces of capital.

Parallels and Interpretations: From Literature to Real Events

Numerous British readers of Nordenhof's Scandinavian Star novels will think immediately of the London tower tragedy, which, though accidental in cause, shares similarities in that the ensuing tragedy and fatalities can be linked at in part to the dangerous trade-off of prioritizing profit over people. In these first two books of what is planned to be a multi-volume series, the blaze aboard the ship and the chain of fraudulent business deals that ended in mass murder are a ominous background element, revealing themselves only in brief glimpses of information or implication yet projecting a growing shadow over everything that transpires. Some individuals may doubt how much it is feasible to interpret this volume as a stand-alone work, when its aim and significance are so deeply tied into a larger narrative whose final form, at present, is uncertain.

Innovative Prose: Art and Morality Intertwined

Some individuals—and I count myself as one of them—who will become enamored with Nordenhof's endeavor purely as text, as properly experimental writing whose ethical and artistic intent are so deeply entwined as to make them inseparable. “Write poems / for we require / that as well.” There is another fire here: an intense, attractive commitment to writing as a political act. I intend to persist to follow this literary journey, wherever it leads.