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During the late night of the 7th of April 1990, a catastrophic blaze broke out aboard the MS Scandinavian Star, a car and passenger ferry traveling between Oslo and Frederikshavn. Inadequate staff training along with malfunctioning fire doors accelerated the propagation of the fire, while deadly cyanide gas released from burning materials led to the loss of 159 individuals. At first, the tragedy was attributed to a passenger—a truck driver with a record of fire-setting. Given that this individual also perished in the fire and was unable to refute the accusations, the full truth regarding the disaster remained hidden for many years. It wasn't until 2020 that a comprehensive documentary disclosed the fire was probably started intentionally as part of an insurance fraud.

Asta Olivia Nordenhof's Literary Sequence: A Glimpse

Within the first volume of Asta Olivia Nordenhof's Scandinavian Star sequence, the preceding volume, an unnamed narrator is traveling on a public transport through Copenhagen when she observes an older man on the street. As the vehicle drives away, she feels an “eerie sense” that she is carrying a part of him with her. Driven to retrace the route in pursuit of him, the narrator finds herself in a setting that is both alien and strangely known. She introduces readers to Maggie and Kurt, whose relationship is strained by the burdens of their conflicted pasts. In the final pages of that book, it is implied that the root of Kurt's discontent may originate in a poor financial decision made on his behalf by a individual referred to as T.

The Devil Book: A Unique Narrative Style

The Devil Book opens with an lengthy prose poem in which the narrator explains her challenge to write T's story. “In this second volume,” she states, “we were meant / to trace him / from childhood up until / the evening / when he sat anticipating for / the report that / the blaze / on the ferry / had effectively been / ignited.” Overwhelmed by the undertaking she has assigned herself and derailed by the pandemic, she tackles the tale obliquely, as a type of parable. “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 tale gradually unfolds of a woman who spends quarantine in London with a virtual stranger and during those weeks tells to him what happened to her a decade before, 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 motives. As the elements of the dual narratives become more interwoven, we begin to believe that they are identical—or at the very least that the nature of T is multiple, for there are devils everywhere.

There is another fire here: a passionate, magnetic dedication to writing as a political act

Deals with the Devil: A Thematic Examination

Classic stories teach us that it is the dark figure who does bargains, not a divine being, and that we engage in them at our risk. But suppose the protagonist herself is the malevolent force? A third storyline eventually emerges—the story of a girl whose childhood was scarred by abuse and who spent time in a mental health facility, under pressure to conform with societal norms or endure further harm. “[The devil] knows that in the game you've set for it, there are a pair of results: submit or stay a monster.” A third way out is finally unveiled through a series of verses to the darkness that are also a rallying cry against the forces of capital.

Connections and Interpretations: From Fiction to Real Events

Many British readers of Nordenhof's series novels will reflect immediately of the Grenfell Tower tragedy, which, though unintentional in origin, bears similarities in that the ensuing disaster and loss of life can be attributed at least partly to the dangerous trade-off of putting profit over people. In these first two books of what is planned to be a seven-book sequence, the blaze on board the ferry and the chain of deceptive transactions that culminated in multiple deaths are a ominous background element, revealing themselves only in brief glimpses of detail or inference yet casting a deepening influence over all that occurs. Certain readers may question how far it is possible to interpret The Devil Book as a independent work, when its aim and significance are so deeply tied into a larger narrative whose ultimate shape, at present, is uncertain.

Experimental Writing: Art and Morality Intertwined

Some individuals—and I count myself as one of them—who will fall in love with the author's endeavor purely as written art, as properly experimental literature whose ethical and artistic intent are so deeply entwined as to make them inextricable. “Compose verses / for we need / that as well.” There is another fire here: a passionate, magnetic commitment to writing as a statement. I will continue to follow this series, wherever it goes.