MONEY TO BURN by Asta Olivia Nordenhof

Translated by Caroline Waight

There’s a hard pivot about a quarter of the way into Money To Burn. What’s started as a perceptively discomforting glimpse of an empty nester marriage in decline turns sharply towards the more harrowing world of the wife’s backstory. Nordenhof pulls no punches. Young Maggie is repeatedly brutalised, abused and shunted through the broken pipes of the welfare system. It’s the first of several sharp lefts. Pretty soon, the story shifts to the case of an infamous passenger ferry fire that killed 159 people.

Is there a link? It’s hard to tell because then we’re off to early married days where Kurt turns out to be a vile piece of crap, ruthlessly beating Maggie, carousing about town and generally being awful. Another time slip and we’re with Sophie, their daughter. Then back to young, messed up Kurt. It’s all rather discombobulating but in a “well this is a wild ride” kind of way. Nordenhof’s explosive energy is almost as bonkers as her author pic (seriously, the best of all time).

Apparently, Money To Burn is the first in a series of seven books. I’m excited to see where it goes next.

Money To Burn by Asta Olivia Nordenhof (Tr. Caroline Waight)
Jonathan Cape, 2025
154 pages