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In the late night of the 7th of April 1990, a catastrophic fire broke out aboard the ferry Scandinavian Star, a car and passenger ferry traveling between Frederikshavn and Oslo. Insufficient crew preparedness combined with malfunctioning fire doors accelerated the spread of the fire, while deadly cyanide gas emitted from combusting materials caused the loss of 159 individuals. At first, the tragedy was attributed to a passenger—a truck driver with a history of arson. Given that this suspect also died in the fire and was unable to defend himself, the full truth about the disaster stayed concealed for many years. Only in 2020 that a detailed investigation disclosed the blaze was probably set intentionally as part of an insurance fraud.

Nordenhof's Literary Series: A Glimpse

Within the first volume of Asta Olivia Nordenhof's Scandinavian Star series, the preceding volume, an unnamed narrator is traveling on a bus 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 piece of him with her. Compelled to repeat the route in pursuit of him, the narrator finds herself in a setting that is both alien and deeply familiar. She introduces us to Maggie and Kurt, whose relationship is tested by the burdens of their troubled pasts. In the final pages of that book, it is suggested that the source of Kurt's disaffection may stem from a disastrous financial decision made on his account by a individual referred to as T.

This New Volume: A Unique Narrative Style

This second installment begins with an extended poetic passage in which the writer explains her challenge to write T's story. “In this volume, two,” she states, “we were supposed / to follow him / from youth up until / the evening / when he sat anticipating for / the news that / the blaze / on the Scandinavian Star / had successfully been / set.” Overwhelmed by the undertaking she has set herself and disrupted by the global health crisis, she approaches the story obliquely, as a form of parable. “It occurred to me / that I / can do / anything I want / so this / is my book / this is / for you / this is / an erotic thriller / about entrepreneurs and / the dark force.”

A tale gradually emerges of a woman who experiences lockdown in the UK capital with a virtual stranger and over the course of those weeks relates to him what occurred to her a decade earlier, when she agreed to an proposal from a man who professed to be the evil entity to grant all her desires, so long as she didn't doubt his intentions. As the threads of the dual narratives become more intertwined, we begin to believe that they are one and the same—or at the very least that the nature of T is multiple, for there are devils everywhere.

Another blaze is present: a passionate, compelling dedication to literature as a form of activism

Deals with the Devil: A Literary Exploration

Classic stories instruct us that it is the dark figure who makes deals, not God, and that we engage in them at our peril. But what if the protagonist herself is the devil? A third storyline eventually emerges—the account of a girl whose childhood was marred by mistreatment and who was placed in a mental health facility, under pressure to conform with societal norms or endure more of the same. “[The devil] understands that in the scenario you've set for it, there are two outcomes: submit or remain a beast.” A alternative path is finally unveiled through a collection of verses to the darkness that are simultaneously a call to arms against the influences of capital.

Parallels and Readings: From Literature to Reality

Numerous British audience members of Nordenhof's series books will think immediately of the Grenfell Tower fire, which, though accidental in cause, shares similarities in that the ensuing tragedy and loss of life can be attributed at in part to the devil's bargain of prioritizing profit over people. In these first two volumes of what is planned to be a seven-book sequence, the fire on board the ship and the series of deceptive business deals that ended in multiple deaths are a ominous underlying presence, showing themselves only in fleeting glimpses of detail or implication yet projecting a deepening shadow over all that occurs. Certain individuals may question how much it is feasible to read The Devil Book as a independent piece, when its aim and meaning are so deeply tied into a larger whole whose ultimate shape, at this stage, is unknowable.

Innovative Prose: Ethics and Aesthetics Fused

There will be others—and I count myself as one of them—who will fall in love with the author's endeavor purely as text, as truly experimental writing whose ethical and creative intent are so profoundly interlinked as to make them inextricable. “Write poems / for we need / that as well.” There is another fire here: a passionate, magnetic devotion to writing as a statement. I will persist to follow this literary journey, no matter where it leads.