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In the early hours of April 7 1990, a catastrophic fire erupted on board the ferry Scandinavian Star, a passenger ferry operating between Frederikshavn and Oslo. Insufficient crew training combined with malfunctioning fire doors aided the propagation of the fire, while toxic cyanide gas released from burning laminates caused the loss of 159 people. At first, the disaster was attributed to a traveler—a truck driver with a history of arson. Since this suspect too died in the fire and was unable to refute himself, the full facts regarding the disaster stayed hidden for a long time. It wasn't until 2020 that a detailed investigation disclosed the fire was likely started intentionally as part of an fraud scheme.

Asta Olivia Nordenhof's Literary Series: A Glimpse

In the first volume of Asta Olivia Nordenhof's epic sequence, the preceding volume, an unnamed protagonist is riding on a public transport through Copenhagen when she observes an elderly man on the street. As the vehicle moves away, she feels an “eerie sense” that she is carrying a part of him with her. Driven to retrace the journey in pursuit of him, the narrator finds herself in a landscape that is both unfamiliar and deeply familiar. She introduces us to Maggie and Kurt, whose connection is strained by the burdens of their conflicted pasts. In the concluding section of that book, it is suggested that the root of Kurt's discontent may originate in a disastrous investment made on his behalf by a man referred to as T.

The Devil Book: A Unique Narrative Style

The Devil Book opens with an extended poetic passage in which the narrator describes her challenge to write T's story. “In this volume, two,” she states, “we were meant / to follow him / from youth up until / the evening / when he sat anticipating for / the report that / the blaze / on the Scandinavian Star / had effectively been / ignited.” Burdened by the task she has assigned herself and derailed by the global health crisis, 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 work / this is / for you / this is / an erotic thriller / about entrepreneurs and / the dark force.”

A narrative gradually emerges of a female character who experiences lockdown in London with a near-unknown person and during those days relates to him what occurred to her a decade before, when she agreed to an offer from a man who professed to be the devil to fulfill all her desires, so long as she didn't doubt his motives. As the threads of the two stories become more intertwined, we start to believe that they are one and the same—or at minimum that the nature of T is multiple, for there are devils everywhere.

Another blaze is present: an ardent, magnetic commitment to literature as a form of activism

Pacts and Consequences: A Thematic Examination

Classic stories teach us that it is the devil who makes deals, not a divine being, and that we engage in them at our peril. But suppose the protagonist herself is the malevolent force? A third narrative eventually emerges—the account of a girl whose childhood was scarred by mistreatment and who was placed in a mental health facility, under pressure to comply with social expectations or suffer more of the same. “[The devil] understands that in the game you've set for it, there are a pair of outcomes: submit or stay a beast.” A alternative path is ultimately revealed through a collection of poems to the darkness that are simultaneously a call to arms against the forces of wealth and power.

Connections and Readings: From Fiction to Reality

Many British audience members of Nordenhof's series books will think immediately of the Grenfell Tower fire, which, though unintentional in cause, bears similarities in that the resulting tragedy and fatalities can be attributed at in part to the devil's bargain of prioritizing financial gain over people. In these initial volumes of what is planned to be a seven-book series, the fire aboard the ship and the chain of fraudulent transactions that ended in multiple deaths are a ominous background presence, revealing themselves only in fleeting glimpses of detail or implication yet projecting a deepening influence over everything that occurs. Certain readers may doubt how much it is possible to interpret this volume as a independent piece, when its aim and meaning are so intricately tied into a larger narrative whose ultimate shape, at present, is uncertain.

Experimental Writing: Art and Morality Intertwined

There will be others—and I include myself as among them—who will fall in love with the author's project purely as written art, as properly innovative literature whose ethical and artistic intent are so deeply entwined as to make them inextricable. “Compose verses / for we need / that too.” Another kind of blaze exists: a passionate, magnetic commitment to the craft as a political act. I intend to persist to pursue this literary journey, wherever it leads.