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During the early hours of the 7th of April 1990, a devastating blaze erupted aboard the ferry Scandinavian Star, a passenger ferry operating between Oslo and Frederikshavn. Insufficient crew training combined with malfunctioning safety doors aided the propagation of the fire, while deadly cyanide gas released from combusting laminates caused the deaths of 159 people. Initially, the tragedy was attributed to a traveler—a truck driver with a record of arson. Since this suspect also perished in the incident and was unable to refute the accusations, the full facts regarding the event stayed hidden for many years. Only in 2020 that a detailed investigation revealed the fire was likely set deliberately as part of an fraud scheme.

Asta Olivia Nordenhof's Scandinavian Star Series: A Glimpse

Within the first volume of Asta Olivia Nordenhof's Scandinavian Star sequence, the preceding volume, an unnamed protagonist is riding on a public transport through Copenhagen when she observes an older man on the street. As the vehicle drives away, she experiences an “uncanny feeling” that she is carrying a part of him with her. Compelled to repeat the route in search of him, the character finds herself in a setting that is both unfamiliar and deeply familiar. She presents 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 volume, it is suggested that the root of Kurt's disaffection may stem from a poor investment made on his behalf by a man referred to as T.

This New Volume: An Unconventional Approach

The Devil Book begins with an extended poetic passage in which the writer describes her challenge to compose T's story. “In this volume, two,” she writes, “we were supposed / to trace him / from childhood up until / the night / when he sat anticipating for / the report that / the blaze / on the ferry / had effectively been / ignited.” Burdened by the undertaking she has set herself and derailed by the global health crisis, she tackles the tale indirectly, as a form of parable. “It occurred to me / that I / can do / anything I want / so this / is my book / this is / for you / this is / an sensational story / about businessmen and / the dark force.”

A tale slowly emerges of a female character who experiences lockdown in the UK capital with a near-unknown person and during those days relates to him what happened to her a decade earlier, when she agreed to an offer from a man who claimed to be the devil to grant all her wishes, so long as she didn't doubt his intentions. As the elements of the two stories become more interwoven, we begin to suspect that they are identical—or at minimum that the nature of T is legion, for there are devils all around.

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

Pacts and Consequences: A Thematic Examination

Literature teach us that it is the dark figure who does bargains, not a divine being, and that we engage in them at our peril. But suppose the protagonist herself is the malevolent force? A additional storyline eventually emerges—the account of a girl whose early years was scarred by abuse and who spent time in a mental health facility, under duress to comply with social expectations or endure more of the same. “[This entity] understands that in the game you've set for it, there are a pair of results: surrender or remain a monster.” A alternative path is ultimately unveiled through a collection of verses to the darkness that are also a rallying cry against the influences of wealth and power.

Parallels and Readings: From Literature to Real Events

Numerous British audience members of Nordenhof's series novels will think immediately of the Grenfell Tower fire, which, though accidental in cause, bears parallels in that the resulting disaster and loss of life can be linked at in part to the devil's bargain of putting financial gain over people. In these first two volumes of what is projected to be a multi-volume series, the blaze on board the ferry and the chain of deceptive transactions that culminated in multiple deaths are a ominous background element, showing themselves only in fleeting flashes of detail or implication yet casting a growing shadow over all that occurs. Some individuals may doubt how much it is possible to interpret The Devil Book as a stand-alone piece, when its aim and significance are so deeply tied into a larger whole whose final form, at this stage, is uncertain.

Experimental Writing: Ethics and Aesthetics Fused

Some individuals—and I include myself as among them—who will fall in love with the author's endeavor purely as text, as properly innovative literature whose moral and creative 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 the craft as a political act. I intend to continue to pursue this literary journey, no matter where it goes.