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During the early hours of April 7 1990, a catastrophic fire broke out aboard the MS Scandinavian Star, a passenger ferry operating between Oslo and Frederikshavn. Inadequate staff preparedness combined with malfunctioning safety doors accelerated the spread of the flames, while toxic hydrogen cyanide gas emitted from combusting laminates led to the loss of 159 individuals. At first, the tragedy was attributed to a traveler—a lorry driver with a record of fire-setting. Given that this individual too died in the fire and was unable to defend himself, the full truth about the event remained concealed for a long time. It wasn't until 2020 that a detailed documentary revealed the fire was likely started intentionally as part of an insurance fraud.

Nordenhof's Literary Sequence: An Overview

Within the first volume of Asta Olivia Nordenhof's epic sequence, the preceding volume, an unnamed narrator is riding on a bus through Copenhagen when she notices an elderly man on the sidewalk. As the bus drives away, she feels an “uncanny feeling” that she is taking a piece of him with her. Compelled to repeat the journey in pursuit of him, the narrator enters a setting that is both unfamiliar and strangely known. She introduces readers to Maggie and Kurt, whose relationship is strained by the burdens of their troubled histories. In the concluding section of that volume, it is suggested that the root of the character's disaffection may stem from a disastrous investment made on his account by a individual referred to as T.

This New Volume: A Unique Narrative Style

This second installment begins with an extended poetic passage in which the narrator explains her struggle to write T's narrative. “Within this second volume,” she states, “we were meant / to trace him / from childhood up until / the night / when he sat waiting for / the news that / the blaze / on the ferry / had effectively been / ignited.” Overwhelmed by the undertaking she has assigned herself and derailed by the pandemic, she approaches the tale indirectly, as a form of allegory. “It occurred to me / that I / can do / anything I want / so this / is my book / this is / for you / this is / an erotic thriller / about businessmen and / the dark force.”

A tale gradually unfolds of a female character who spends lockdown in the UK capital with a virtual stranger and over the course of those weeks tells to him what happened to her a decade earlier, when she agreed to an proposal from a man who claimed to be the devil to grant all her wishes, so long as she didn't question his intentions. As the elements of the two stories become more intertwined, we begin to believe that they are one and the same—or at the very least that the identity of T is multiple, for there are demonic forces all around.

There is another fire here: a passionate, magnetic dedication to literature as a form of activism

Deals with the Devil: A Thematic Exploration

Literature teach us that it is the dark figure who makes bargains, not God, and that we enter into them at our peril. But suppose the protagonist herself is the malevolent force? A third narrative comes finally to light—the account of a girl whose childhood was marred by abuse and who was placed in a psychiatric hospital, under pressure to comply with societal norms or suffer more of the same. “[This entity] knows that in the game you've set for it, there are a pair of outcomes: surrender or stay a monster.” A alternative path is ultimately revealed through a series of verses to the darkness that are also a rallying cry against the forces of wealth and power.

Parallels and Interpretations: From Fiction to Real Events

Many British readers of the author's Scandinavian Star novels will reflect right away of the Grenfell Tower tragedy, which, though accidental in origin, bears parallels in that the resulting tragedy and loss of life can be attributed at in part to the dangerous trade-off of prioritizing profit over people. In these initial volumes of what is projected to be a multi-volume series, the fire on board the ship and the chain of deceptive transactions that culminated in mass murder are a ominous underlying element, showing themselves only in fleeting flashes of information or implication yet projecting a growing influence over all that occurs. Certain individuals may question how far it is possible to read The Devil Book as a stand-alone piece, when its aim and significance are so intricately bound into a larger narrative whose ultimate shape, at present, is uncertain.

Experimental Writing: Ethics and Aesthetics Fused

There will be others—and I include myself as one of them—who will become enamored with the author's endeavor purely as text, as truly innovative writing whose ethical and creative intent are so profoundly entwined as to make them inseparable. “Write poems / for we require / that too.” There is another fire here: a passionate, attractive devotion to the craft as a political act. I intend to continue to pursue this series, no matter where it leads.