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During the late night of April 7 1990, a devastating fire erupted on board the MS Scandinavian Star, a passenger ferry operating between Oslo and Frederikshavn. Inadequate staff training combined with malfunctioning fire doors aided the spread of the flames, while toxic cyanide gas emitted from combusting materials caused the deaths of 159 people. At first, the tragedy was blamed to a passenger—a lorry driver with a history of fire-setting. Given that this suspect too perished in the incident and was unable to refute the accusations, the full facts regarding the event stayed hidden for many years. It wasn't until 2020 that a comprehensive investigation revealed the fire was probably started intentionally as part of an fraud scheme.

Nordenhof's Literary Series: A Glimpse

Within the first volume of Asta Olivia Nordenhof's epic series, the preceding volume, an unidentified protagonist is traveling on a bus through the Danish capital when she notices an elderly man on the sidewalk. As the vehicle drives away, she experiences an “uncanny feeling” that she is carrying a part of him with her. Compelled to retrace the route in pursuit of him, the character finds herself in a setting that is both alien and strangely known. She introduces us to Maggie and Kurt, whose relationship is strained by the burdens of their conflicted pasts. In the concluding section of that book, it is implied that the source of Kurt's disaffection may originate in a disastrous investment made on his account by a man known as T.

The Devil Book: An Unconventional Approach

This second installment opens with an extended prose poem in which the writer describes her struggle to compose T's story. “Within this second volume,” she writes, “we were supposed / to follow him / from youth up until / the night / when he sat waiting for / the news that / the blaze / on the ferry / had effectively been / ignited.” Burdened by the task she has assigned herself and derailed by the global health crisis, she tackles the story 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 devil.”

A tale gradually unfolds of a female character who experiences lockdown in London with a near-unknown person and during those weeks relates to him what happened to her a decade earlier, when she agreed to an proposal from a figure who claimed to be the evil entity to fulfill all her wishes, so long as she didn't doubt his motives. As the elements of the two stories become more interwoven, we begin to suspect that they are identical—or at the very least that the nature of T is legion, for there are devils everywhere.

There is another fire here: a passionate, compelling commitment to literature as a political act

Pacts and Consequences: A Literary Exploration

Literature teach us that it is the devil who does bargains, not God, and that we enter into them at our risk. But what if the protagonist herself is the devil? A third storyline comes finally to light—the story of a girl whose early years was scarred by abuse and who was placed in a mental health facility, under duress to comply with social expectations or endure further harm. “[This entity] knows that in the game you've created for it, there are a pair of results: submit or stay a beast.” A third way out is ultimately revealed through a series of verses to the darkness that are also a rallying cry against the forces of capital.

Parallels and Interpretations: From Literature to Real Events

Many UK readers of the author's series novels will think immediately of the London tower fire, which, though unintentional in cause, bears parallels in that the resulting disaster and loss of life can be attributed at in part to the devil's bargain of prioritizing profit over people. In these initial volumes of what is planned to be a seven-book series, the fire aboard the ferry and the series of fraudulent transactions that culminated in mass murder are a ominous underlying presence, showing themselves only in fleeting flashes of detail or inference yet projecting a deepening influence over everything that occurs. Certain readers may question how far it is possible to read this volume as a stand-alone work, when its purpose and significance are so deeply bound into a broader narrative whose ultimate shape, at this stage, is unknowable.

Innovative Prose: Art and Morality Fused

Some individuals—and I count myself as among them—who will become enamored with Nordenhof's endeavor purely as text, as properly experimental literature whose ethical and creative purpose are so deeply interlinked as to make them inseparable. “Compose verses / for we require / that too.” Another kind of blaze exists: an intense, attractive commitment to writing as a political act. I will continue to pursue this literary journey, wherever it goes.