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During the late night of April 7 1990, a catastrophic blaze erupted aboard the MS Scandinavian Star, a passenger ferry operating between Frederikshavn and Oslo. Insufficient crew training combined with malfunctioning fire doors accelerated the propagation of the flames, while toxic cyanide gas released from combusting materials caused the loss of 159 individuals. At first, the tragedy was blamed to a passenger—a lorry driver with a history of arson. Given that this individual also died in the fire and was not able to defend himself, the full facts about the disaster remained hidden for a long time. Only in 2020 that a detailed investigation revealed the fire was probably started intentionally as part of an insurance fraud.

Nordenhof's Scandinavian Star Sequence: A Glimpse

Within the first volume of Asta Olivia Nordenhof's Scandinavian Star series, Money to Burn, an unidentified 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 experiences an “eerie sense” that she is carrying a piece of him with her. Driven to repeat the journey in pursuit of him, the narrator finds herself in a setting that is both alien and strangely known. She presents us to Maggie and Kurt, whose connection is strained by the burdens of their troubled pasts. In the concluding section of that book, it is suggested that the source of the character's discontent may originate in a disastrous investment made on his account by a man referred to as T.

This New Volume: A Unique Narrative Style

This second installment begins with an extended poetic passage in which the writer describes her challenge to write T's narrative. “In this second volume,” she states, “we were supposed / to follow him / from childhood up until / the night / when he sat anticipating for / the news that / the fire / on the ferry / had effectively been / ignited.” Overwhelmed by the task she has set herself and disrupted by the global health crisis, she tackles the story indirectly, as a type of allegory. “It occurred to me / that I / can do / anything I want / so this / is my work / this is / for you / this is / an sensational story / about businessmen and / the dark force.”

A narrative slowly emerges of a female character who spends lockdown in London with a virtual stranger and over the course of those weeks tells to him what occurred to her a decade earlier, when she accepted an offer from a man who claimed to be the evil entity to fulfill all her desires, so long as she didn't question his intentions. As the threads of the two stories become more intertwined, we begin to suspect that they are identical—or at minimum that the nature of T is legion, for there are demonic forces all around.

Another blaze is present: an ardent, magnetic dedication to writing as a political act

Deals with the Devil: A Thematic Exploration

Classic stories instruct us that it is the dark figure who makes bargains, not God, and that we engage in them at our peril. But what if the protagonist herself is the malevolent force? A additional storyline eventually emerges—the account of a girl whose childhood was marred by abuse and who spent time in a mental health facility, under pressure to comply with societal norms or suffer further harm. “[The devil] understands that in the scenario you've set for it, there are two results: surrender or stay a monster.” A alternative path is finally unveiled through a collection of verses to the night that are also a call to arms against the forces of capital.

Parallels and Interpretations: From Literature to Real Events

Numerous British audience members of the author's series novels will think right away of the Grenfell Tower fire, which, though unintentional in origin, shares parallels in that the resulting disaster and fatalities can be attributed at least partly to the devil's bargain of prioritizing profit over people. In these first two books of what is projected to be a multi-volume series, the blaze on board the ship and the series of deceptive transactions that ended in mass murder are a sinister background presence, showing themselves only in fleeting flashes of detail or inference yet projecting a growing influence over everything that occurs. Certain individuals may question how much it is feasible to read The Devil Book as a stand-alone work, when its purpose and significance are so deeply bound into a broader narrative whose ultimate shape, at present, is uncertain.

Innovative Prose: Ethics and Aesthetics Fused

Some individuals—and I count myself as one of them—who will become enamored with the author's endeavor purely as text, as properly innovative literature whose ethical and creative purpose are so profoundly interlinked as to make them inseparable. “Write poems / for we need / that as well.” There is another fire here: a passionate, attractive devotion to writing as a political act. I intend to continue to pursue this literary journey, wherever it leads.