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During the late night of the 7th of April 1990, a devastating blaze erupted on board the ferry Scandinavian Star, a passenger ferry traveling between Frederikshavn and Oslo. Insufficient crew preparedness combined with malfunctioning safety doors aided the propagation of the flames, while toxic hydrogen cyanide gas emitted from burning laminates led to the loss of 159 individuals. At first, the disaster was attributed to a traveler—a truck driver with a record of arson. Since this individual also died in the fire and was unable to defend himself, the complete truth regarding the disaster remained concealed for many years. It wasn't until 2020 that a detailed documentary revealed the blaze was probably started deliberately as part of an insurance fraud.

Asta Olivia Nordenhof's Literary Sequence: An Overview

Within the initial book of Nordenhof's epic sequence, the preceding volume, an unidentified protagonist is riding on a public transport through Copenhagen when she observes an older man on the sidewalk. As the bus moves away, she feels an “eerie sense” that she is taking a part of him with her. Compelled to retrace the journey in search of him, the character enters a landscape that is both unfamiliar and deeply familiar. She introduces us to Maggie and Kurt, whose relationship is tested by the pressures of their conflicted histories. In the concluding section of that volume, it is implied that the source of the character's discontent may originate in a disastrous investment made on his behalf by a individual referred to as T.

This New Volume: An Unconventional Approach

This second installment opens with an extended prose poem in which the narrator describes her challenge to write T's narrative. “Within this volume, two,” she states, “we were meant / to trace him / from youth up until / the night / when he sat anticipating for / the report that / the blaze / on the Scandinavian Star / had effectively been / set.” Overwhelmed by the undertaking she has assigned herself and disrupted by the global health crisis, she tackles the tale indirectly, as a form of parable. “I came to think / that I / can do / whatever I want / so this / is my book / this is / for you / this is / an erotic thriller / about entrepreneurs and / the devil.”

A tale slowly unfolds of a female character who experiences quarantine in London with a virtual stranger and over the course of those days relates to him what occurred to her a ten years before, when she accepted an proposal from a man who claimed to be the evil entity to grant all her wishes, so long as she didn't doubt his intentions. As the elements of the dual narratives become more interwoven, we begin to suspect that they are one and the same—or at the very least that the identity of T is legion, for there are devils everywhere.

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

Deals with the Devil: A Literary Exploration

Classic stories instruct us that it is the devil who does bargains, not a divine being, and that we enter into them at our risk. But what if the narrator herself is the malevolent force? A third storyline comes finally to light—the story of a girl whose childhood was scarred by abuse and who spent time in a mental health facility, under pressure to comply with societal norms or endure more of the same. “[This entity] understands that in the game you've set for it, there are two results: submit or remain a beast.” A alternative path is ultimately unveiled through a series of verses to the darkness that are simultaneously a rallying cry against the influences of wealth and power.

Connections and Readings: From Fiction to Reality

Many British audience members of the author's series books will think immediately of the Grenfell Tower tragedy, which, though accidental in origin, bears similarities in that the ensuing tragedy and fatalities can be attributed at least partly to the devil's bargain of putting profit over human lives. In these first two books of what is projected to be a multi-volume sequence, the fire on board the ferry and the series of deceptive transactions that ended in multiple deaths are a sinister background presence, revealing themselves only in brief glimpses of information or implication yet projecting a growing shadow over everything that transpires. Certain individuals may doubt how far it is feasible to interpret this volume as a stand-alone piece, when its aim and meaning are so deeply bound into a broader whole whose final form, at present, is uncertain.

Innovative Prose: Ethics and Aesthetics Fused

Some individuals—and I include myself as among them—who will become enamored with the author's project purely as text, as properly innovative writing whose ethical and artistic intent are so deeply entwined as to make them inseparable. “Compose verses / for we need / that as well.” There is another fire here: an intense, magnetic commitment to writing as a statement. I intend to continue to follow this literary journey, wherever it goes.