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In the late night of the 7th of April 1990, a catastrophic blaze broke out on board the ferry Scandinavian Star, a car and passenger ferry traveling between Oslo and Frederikshavn. Inadequate crew preparedness along with jammed fire doors aided the spread of the flames, while toxic hydrogen cyanide gas released from combusting laminates caused the loss of 159 people. At first, the tragedy was blamed to a traveler—a truck driver with a history of fire-setting. Since this suspect too died in the fire and was not able to defend the accusations, the complete facts about the disaster remained concealed for many years. It wasn't until 2020 that a detailed documentary revealed the fire was probably started deliberately as part of an insurance fraud.

Nordenhof's Literary Series: An Overview

Within the first volume of Asta Olivia Nordenhof's epic series, Money to Burn, an unidentified protagonist is traveling on a public transport through Copenhagen when she notices an older man on the sidewalk. As the bus moves away, she experiences an “uncanny feeling” that she is taking a piece of him with her. Driven to repeat the route in search of him, the narrator finds herself in a setting that is both unfamiliar and deeply familiar. She introduces readers to Maggie and Kurt, whose connection is strained by the pressures of their conflicted histories. In the concluding section of that volume, it is implied that the root of Kurt's disaffection may stem from a poor financial decision made on his account by a man referred to as T.

The Devil Book: A Unique Approach

The Devil Book opens with an lengthy poetic passage in which the narrator explains her challenge to compose T's story. “In 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 fire / on the Scandinavian Star / had effectively been / ignited.” Burdened by the task she has set herself and disrupted by the global health crisis, she tackles the tale indirectly, as a form of parable. “I came to think / that I / can do / whatever I want / so this / is my work / this is / for you / this is / an erotic thriller / about businessmen and / the devil.”

A narrative gradually emerges of a woman who experiences lockdown in London with a near-unknown person and during those weeks tells to him what occurred to her a decade earlier, when she agreed to an offer from a figure who professed 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 start to suspect that they are one and the same—or at the very least that the nature of T is multiple, for there are demonic forces everywhere.

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

Pacts and Consequences: A Thematic Exploration

Classic stories instruct us that it is the dark figure who does bargains, not God, and that we enter into them at our peril. But what if the protagonist herself is the devil? A third storyline comes finally to light—the story of a young woman whose early years was marred by mistreatment and who spent time in a psychiatric hospital, under duress to comply with societal norms or suffer more of the same. “[The devil] understands that in the scenario you've set for it, there are two outcomes: submit or stay a monster.” A third way out is ultimately unveiled through a series of poems to the darkness that are simultaneously a rallying cry against the forces of wealth and power.

Connections and Readings: From Fiction to Real Events

Numerous UK audience members of Nordenhof's series books will reflect immediately of the London tower tragedy, which, though unintentional in origin, shares similarities in that the ensuing tragedy and fatalities can be linked at least partly to the devil's bargain of putting profit over people. In these first two books of what is projected to be a multi-volume series, the blaze on board the ferry and the series of deceptive transactions that culminated in multiple deaths are a ominous background presence, showing themselves only in fleeting flashes of information or inference yet casting a deepening shadow over everything that transpires. Certain individuals may doubt how much it is feasible to interpret The Devil Book as a independent work, when its aim and significance are so intricately tied into a broader whole whose ultimate shape, at this stage, is unknowable.

Experimental Writing: Art and Morality Intertwined

There will be others—and I include myself as among them—who will become enamored with Nordenhof's endeavor purely as text, as truly innovative literature whose ethical and artistic purpose are so deeply entwined as to make them inextricable. “Compose verses / for we require / that too.” Another kind of blaze exists: an intense, attractive commitment to the craft as a political act. I intend to continue to pursue this literary journey, wherever it leads.