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During the early hours of the 7th of April 1990, a catastrophic blaze broke out aboard the ferry Scandinavian Star, a car and passenger ferry operating between Oslo and Frederikshavn. Inadequate staff training combined with malfunctioning safety doors aided the propagation of the flames, while deadly cyanide gas emitted from burning laminates caused 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 suspect also perished in the incident and was not able to defend the accusations, the complete facts regarding the disaster remained concealed for many years. It wasn't until 2020 that a comprehensive investigation disclosed the blaze was probably started deliberately as part of an fraud scheme.

Asta Olivia Nordenhof's Literary Series: An Overview

Within the initial book of Asta Olivia Nordenhof's epic series, Money to Burn, an unnamed protagonist is traveling on a public transport through Copenhagen when she notices an elderly man on the street. As the bus drives away, she feels an “uncanny feeling” that she is carrying a part of him with her. Compelled to repeat the route in search of him, the character enters a setting that is both unfamiliar and deeply familiar. She introduces readers to a couple named Maggie and Kurt, whose relationship is strained by the burdens of their conflicted histories. In the concluding section of that volume, it is implied that the source of the character's disaffection may originate in a poor investment made on his behalf by a man known as T.

This New Volume: A Unique Approach

This second installment begins with an extended poetic passage in which the writer explains her challenge to write T's narrative. “In this second volume,” she writes, “we were supposed / to trace him / from youth up until / the evening / when he sat anticipating for / the news that / the fire / on the ferry / had effectively been / ignited.” Overwhelmed by the undertaking she has set herself and disrupted by the global health crisis, she approaches the tale obliquely, as a form of parable. “I came to think / that I / can do / anything I want / so this / is my book / this is / for you / this is / an sensational story / about entrepreneurs and / the devil.”

A tale gradually unfolds of a female character who experiences quarantine in London with a virtual stranger and during those days relates to him what occurred to her a decade before, when she agreed to an proposal from a man who claimed to be the evil entity to fulfill all her desires, so long as she didn't question his motives. As the elements of the dual narratives become more intertwined, we start to believe that they are one and the same—or at minimum that the nature of T is multiple, for there are demonic forces all around.

Another blaze is present: an ardent, magnetic commitment to writing as a form of activism

Pacts and Consequences: A Thematic Examination

Literature instruct us that it is the devil who does deals, not God, and that we enter into them at our risk. But suppose the protagonist herself is the malevolent force? A additional storyline eventually emerges—the story of a young woman whose early years was marred by mistreatment and who spent time in a mental health facility, under pressure to conform with social expectations or endure further harm. “[The devil] knows that in the game you've created for it, there are a pair of results: submit or remain a beast.” A third way out is ultimately revealed through a collection of verses to the night that are simultaneously a call to arms against the forces of capital.

Parallels and Readings: From Literature to Real Events

Numerous British readers of the author's Scandinavian Star books will reflect right away of the Grenfell Tower tragedy, which, though accidental in cause, shares parallels in that the resulting tragedy and loss of life can be linked at least partly to the devil's bargain of prioritizing profit over people. In these first two books of what is planned to be a seven-book series, the blaze on board the ship and the series of fraudulent transactions that ended in mass murder are a sinister background element, showing themselves only in fleeting flashes of detail or implication yet projecting a growing shadow over everything that occurs. Some readers may doubt how much it is possible to interpret this volume as a stand-alone piece, when its aim and meaning are so intricately tied into a larger narrative whose ultimate shape, at present, is uncertain.

Innovative Prose: Ethics and Aesthetics Fused

Some individuals—and I include myself as among them—who will fall in love with Nordenhof's endeavor purely as text, as properly innovative literature whose moral and creative intent are so deeply entwined as to make them inseparable. “Compose verses / for we require / that as well.” There is another fire here: an intense, attractive commitment to writing as a political act. I intend to persist to follow this literary journey, no matter where it leads.