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In the early hours of April 7 1990, a catastrophic fire broke out on board the MS Scandinavian Star, a passenger ferry operating between Oslo and Frederikshavn. Inadequate staff preparedness along with malfunctioning safety doors accelerated the propagation of the flames, while toxic hydrogen cyanide gas released from burning laminates led to the loss of 159 people. At first, the disaster was blamed to a passenger—a truck driver with a record of fire-setting. Since this suspect also perished in the fire and was unable to defend the accusations, the complete truth regarding the event stayed concealed for a long time. It wasn't until 2020 that a detailed investigation disclosed the fire was probably set deliberately as part of an insurance fraud.

Asta Olivia Nordenhof's Literary Series: A Glimpse

Within the first volume of Asta Olivia Nordenhof's Scandinavian Star sequence, Money to Burn, an unnamed narrator is riding on a public transport through the Danish capital when she observes an older man on the street. As the bus drives away, she experiences an “uncanny feeling” that she is carrying a piece of him with her. Driven to retrace the journey in pursuit of him, the narrator finds herself in a setting that is both unfamiliar and deeply familiar. She introduces readers to a couple named Maggie and Kurt, whose connection is tested by the pressures of their troubled histories. In the concluding section of that book, it is suggested that the source of the character's disaffection may stem from a disastrous financial decision made on his account by a individual referred to as T.

The Devil Book: An Unconventional Approach

The Devil Book opens with an lengthy poetic passage in which the writer explains her struggle to compose T's narrative. “Within this second volume,” she writes, “we were meant / to trace him / from youth up until / the evening / when he sat anticipating for / the report that / the blaze / on the ferry / 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. “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 female character who experiences quarantine in the UK capital with a near-unknown person and over the course of those days relates to him what occurred to her a decade earlier, when she accepted an proposal from a man who professed to be the devil to fulfill all her desires, so long as she didn't doubt his intentions. As the elements of the two stories become more interwoven, we start to believe that they are one and the same—or at the very least that the identity of T is multiple, for there are devils everywhere.

There is another fire here: an ardent, compelling dedication to writing as a political act

Pacts and Consequences: A Thematic Examination

Literature teach us that it is the devil who does deals, not a divine being, and that we enter into them at our risk. But suppose the protagonist herself is the malevolent force? A third narrative comes finally to light—the story of a young woman whose early years was scarred by abuse and who spent time in a psychiatric hospital, under duress to conform with societal norms or endure further harm. “[This entity] understands that in the game you've set for it, there are two results: submit or remain a beast.” A third way out is ultimately revealed through a collection of poems to the night that are also a call to arms against the forces of capital.

Parallels and Readings: From Fiction to Reality

Many British audience members of Nordenhof's Scandinavian Star novels will reflect immediately of the London tower tragedy, which, though accidental in cause, shares parallels in that the resulting disaster 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 planned to be a multi-volume series, the blaze on board the ferry and the chain of fraudulent transactions that ended in multiple deaths are a ominous background element, showing themselves only in fleeting flashes of detail or inference yet projecting a growing influence over all that transpires. Some individuals may doubt how far it is possible to read this volume as a independent work, when its aim and meaning are so deeply bound into a larger narrative whose ultimate shape, at this stage, is uncertain.

Innovative Prose: Ethics and Aesthetics Intertwined

There will be others—and I include myself as among them—who will fall in love with Nordenhof's project purely as text, as properly innovative literature whose moral and creative purpose are so deeply entwined as to make them inextricable. “Compose verses / for we need / that as well.” There is another fire here: an intense, magnetic devotion to writing as a statement. I intend to continue to pursue this series, no matter where it goes.