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During the late night of the 7th of April 1990, a devastating fire broke out aboard the MS Scandinavian Star, a car and passenger ferry traveling between Frederikshavn and Oslo. Inadequate staff preparedness combined with malfunctioning safety doors accelerated the spread of the flames, while toxic cyanide gas released from burning laminates caused the loss of 159 people. At first, the disaster was blamed to a traveler—a truck driver with a history of fire-setting. Given that this suspect also died in the incident and was not able to defend himself, the complete truth regarding the event stayed hidden for many years. It wasn't until 2020 that a comprehensive investigation disclosed the fire was probably set intentionally as part of an fraud scheme.

Asta Olivia Nordenhof's Scandinavian Star Sequence: A Glimpse

In the initial book of Nordenhof's Scandinavian Star sequence, the preceding volume, an unidentified narrator is riding on a public transport through Copenhagen when she observes an older man on the street. As the vehicle drives away, she experiences an “uncanny feeling” that she is carrying a part of him with her. Compelled to repeat the route in search of him, the narrator enters a setting that is both unfamiliar and strangely known. She presents us to Maggie and Kurt, whose connection is strained by the burdens of their conflicted pasts. In the final pages of that volume, it is implied that the root of the character's disaffection may stem from a disastrous financial decision made on his behalf by a individual known as T.

This New Volume: A Unique Narrative Style

The Devil Book begins with an extended poetic passage in which the writer describes her struggle to write T's story. “Within this volume, two,” she writes, “we were supposed / to follow him / from childhood up until / the night / when he sat waiting for / the report that / the fire / on the ferry / had effectively been / ignited.” Burdened by the undertaking she has assigned herself and derailed by the global health crisis, she tackles the story indirectly, as a type of parable. “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 entrepreneurs and / the dark force.”

A narrative gradually unfolds of a woman who experiences lockdown in London with a near-unknown person and during those weeks relates to him what occurred to her a ten years earlier, when she agreed to an proposal from a figure who professed to be the devil to fulfill all her wishes, so long as she didn't doubt his intentions. As the elements of the dual narratives become more interwoven, we start to suspect that they are identical—or at minimum that the identity of T is multiple, for there are devils all around.

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

Pacts and Consequences: A Literary Exploration

Classic stories instruct us that it is the dark figure who does deals, not a divine being, and that we enter into them at our peril. But what if the protagonist herself is the malevolent force? A third storyline eventually emerges—the account of a young woman whose childhood was scarred by abuse and who was placed in a psychiatric hospital, under duress to conform with social expectations or endure more of the same. “[This entity] knows that in the scenario you've set for it, there are two outcomes: surrender or remain a monster.” A alternative path is finally unveiled through a series of poems to the night that are also a call to arms against the influences of capital.

Connections and Readings: From Fiction to Reality

Many UK readers of the author's series novels will think right away of the London tower tragedy, which, though accidental in origin, bears similarities in that the resulting tragedy and fatalities can be attributed at least partly to the dangerous trade-off of prioritizing profit over human lives. In these initial volumes of what is projected to be a seven-book sequence, the fire on board the ferry and the chain of fraudulent transactions that ended in mass murder are a ominous underlying presence, revealing themselves only in brief flashes of information or inference yet casting a growing influence over all that occurs. Some individuals may doubt how much it is possible to interpret this volume as a independent piece, when its aim and significance are so intricately bound into a broader narrative whose final form, at this stage, is unknowable.

Innovative Prose: Art and Morality Fused

Some individuals—and I include myself as one of them—who will become enamored with Nordenhof's endeavor purely as text, as truly innovative literature whose ethical and creative intent are so deeply entwined as to make them inseparable. “Compose verses / for we require / that as well.” There is another fire here: an intense, magnetic devotion to the craft as a political act. I intend to continue to follow this literary journey, wherever it goes.