Money to Burn by Asta Olivia Nordenhof

Staying true to Scandi
stereotypes, the graphic
design is top notch

Our North Sea odyssey continues with a brief touch of the Nordic, as we get to Denmark.  

Asta Olivia Nodernhof is a poet and novelist from Copenhagen, Money to Burn is the first in a planned septology centring around the MS Scandinavian Star, a car and passenger ferry which was set on fire in 1990 killing 159 people. The official explanation is that one of the passengers, a convicted arsonist, was responsible, who died in the fire. There is, however, some doubt about this.

The second in the septology, The Devil Book, is already out.

Full disclosure: It's been a fair while since I read Monet to Burn. I am very behind on my posts, as such the details are not as fresh in my mind as I would like, and the review will be considerably shorter.

One has to wonder if Asta modelled
for the book cover

Money to Burn flips back and forth between the story of the Scandinavian Star and a relationship between two protagonists, Maggie and Kurt. The narrative is non-linear, skipping between different points in the relationship, from pre-marriage to post-divorce. It is not always immediately apparent where we are at any given time, and when you mix in the seemingly unconnected Scandinavian Star tragedy, it should be a confusing mess. But it isn't. 

Somehow, everything fits together, and though the two parts only tangentially touch, stylistically the sections are cut from the same cloth. I'll be interested to see where Nordenhoff takes the rest of the series, The Devil Book sounds, if anything, even better than Money to Burn and I'll definitely be following her work.

Over all: ★★★★☆   

It says a lot about the current state of things
that I was rather worried that on a windless day
 people may misake this for the St George's cross