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In the late night of the 7th of April 1990, a devastating blaze erupted on board the MS Scandinavian Star, a car and passenger ferry traveling between Frederikshavn and Oslo. Insufficient crew training combined with jammed safety doors aided the spread of the flames, while deadly hydrogen cyanide gas released from burning laminates led to the loss of 159 people. At first, the tragedy was attributed to a traveler—a truck driver with a record of fire-setting. Given that this individual also perished in the incident and was unable to refute himself, the full truth regarding the disaster stayed hidden for a long time. It wasn't until 2020 that a comprehensive documentary revealed the blaze was likely started deliberately as part of an fraud scheme.

Nordenhof's Literary Sequence: A Glimpse

Within the initial book of Asta Olivia Nordenhof's Scandinavian Star sequence, the preceding volume, an unnamed narrator is traveling on a bus through the Danish capital when she observes an older man on the street. As the vehicle drives away, she feels an “eerie sense” that she is carrying a piece of him with her. Compelled to retrace the route in search of him, the character enters a setting that is both unfamiliar and deeply familiar. She presents readers to Maggie and Kurt, whose relationship is tested by the burdens of their conflicted histories. In the concluding section of that volume, it is implied that the source of Kurt's disaffection may originate in a poor financial decision made on his behalf by a individual known as T.

The Devil Book: A Unique Narrative Style

The Devil Book opens with an lengthy poetic passage in which the writer explains her struggle to write T's narrative. “In this volume, two,” she writes, “we were supposed / to follow him / from childhood up until / the evening / when he sat waiting for / the report that / the fire / on the ferry / had effectively been / set.” Overwhelmed by the undertaking she has set herself and derailed by the global health crisis, she approaches 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 tale slowly unfolds of a female character who experiences quarantine in London 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 figure who professed to be the evil entity to fulfill all her desires, so long as she didn't question his motives. As the elements of the two stories become more intertwined, we start to believe that they are identical—or at the very least that the identity of T is legion, for there are demonic forces all around.

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

Pacts and Consequences: A Literary Exploration

Classic stories teach us that it is the devil who makes deals, not a divine being, and that we engage in them at our peril. But suppose the narrator herself is the malevolent force? A third narrative eventually emerges—the story of a young woman whose early years was scarred by mistreatment and who was placed in a psychiatric hospital, under duress to conform with social expectations or endure further harm. “[The devil] knows that in the game you've set for it, there are a pair of results: surrender or remain a monster.” A third way out is finally unveiled through a series of verses to the darkness that are simultaneously a rallying cry against the influences of capital.

Connections and Readings: From Literature to Real Events

Many UK audience members of the author's Scandinavian Star novels will think right away of the Grenfell Tower tragedy, which, though unintentional in origin, bears parallels in that the ensuing tragedy and loss of life can be attributed at least partly to the dangerous trade-off of prioritizing financial gain over human lives. In these first two volumes of what is projected to be a seven-book series, the fire on board the ferry and the chain of fraudulent transactions that ended in mass murder are a ominous background element, revealing themselves only in brief flashes of information or implication yet projecting a deepening influence over all that transpires. Some readers may question how far it is possible to read The Devil Book as a stand-alone piece, when its purpose and significance are so deeply tied into a larger narrative whose ultimate shape, at present, is uncertain.

Innovative Prose: Ethics and Aesthetics Intertwined

Some individuals—and I count myself as among them—who will fall in love with Nordenhof's project purely as written art, as truly innovative writing whose moral and creative intent are so profoundly interlinked as to make them inextricable. “Compose verses / for we require / that too.” Another kind of blaze exists: a passionate, attractive commitment to writing as a political act. I will persist to follow this literary journey, no matter where it goes.