Named among the Best Books of the Year by The New York Times Book Review , NPR, The Boston Globe , The Guardian , Buzzfeed , Publishers Weekly , and Men’s Journal Finalist for the New York Public Library's 2016 Helen Bernstein Book Award for Excellence in Journalism “One of Us has the feel of a nonfiction novel. Like Norman Mailer's The Executioner's Song and Truman Capote's In Cold Blood , it has an omniscient narrator who tells the story of brutal murders and, by implication, sheds light on the society partly responsible for them. Although those two books are beautifully written, I found One of Us to be more powerful and compelling . . . ” —Eric Schlosser, The New York Times Book Review “The roughly 70 pages Ms. Seierstad devotes to [the attacks] are harrowing in their forensic exactitude . . . These scenes are balanced by moments of tremendous heroism, and I'd be lying if I said I didn't read the final half of One of Us with perpetually moist cheeks . . . The nonfiction horror story told in One of Us moves slowly, inexorably and with tremendous authority.” —Dwight Garner, The New York Times “Engrossing, important . . . There are many, many indelible images in Seierstad's account . . . As hard as it is to read about the attack, as frustrating as it is to learn how many delaying mistakes the first responders made and as monstrous as Breivik is, [his victims] on that island that day were beautiful in their idealism. They deserve to be witnessed, which is the ultimate reason to read One of Us .” —Maureen Corrigan, NPR’s “Fresh Air” “One of Us is a masterpiece of journalism, a deeply painful chronicle of an inexplicable and horrifying attack that we'll likely never understand . . .[A] brilliant, unforgettable book.” —Michael Schaub, NPR “One Of Us reads like a true crime novel, but it has the journalistic chops to back it up . . . Not only a stunning achievement in journalism, it's a touchstone on how to write about tragedy with detail, honesty, and compassion.” —Samantha Edwards, A.V. Club “Unforgettable.” —Kate Tuttle, The Boston Globe “A vivid, thoroughly researched, and suspenseful account of the 2011 massacre that killed 77 people in her native Norway . . . The book features evocative portraits of some of the victims and brims with vivid descriptions of the villages, city squares, buildings, and fjords of Norway, touching on the country's politics, changing demographics, and cultural shifts. With a reporter's passion for details and a novelist's sense of story, Seierstad's book is at once an unforgettable account of a national tragedy and a lively portrait of contemporary Norway.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review) “Asne Seierstad's One of Us is almost unbearable to read and absolutely impossible to turn away from: its account of an unthinkable tragedy is reported with staggering rigor and recounted with grace. It's hard to leave this book without feeling incredible grief, without feeling shaken to the core, without feeling urged toward essential questions about what we call evil and how it comes to pass.” —Leslie Jamison, author of The Empathy Exams “A chilling descent into the mind of mass murderer Anders Breivik . . . [Seierstad's] explorations of Breivik . . . have the unsettling quality that readers will associate with novelist Stieg Larsson . . . [One of Us ] packs all the frightening power of a good horror novel.” —Kirkus Reviews “An exhaustive account . . . This book throws a great deal of light on the life and times of a miserable killer.” —Ian Buruma, The Guardian “This is journalism at its very best . . . Undoubtedly Seierstad's most powerful narrative to date.” —Matthew Campbell, The Sunday Times “An astonishing piece of work . . . One of Us looks straight at horror and doesn't flinch: it is classic reporting . . . We need to take note.” —David Sexton, London Evening Standard “Scrupulously researched . . . [Seierstad] has a remarkable eye for the haunting detail, particularly of empathy, and of grief.” —Craig Brown, Daily Mail “Powerful . . . It's hard to see how, as a definitive account of what happened that awful July day, it could ever be bettered.” —Eilis O'Hanlon, Irish Independent “[A] masterful and forensically detailed account of what may be the first cultural-ideological spree killing in history.” —Stav Sherez, The Telegraph “A stunningly good piece of journalism . . .a rich and timely study.” —Jonathan Green, Sydney Morning Herald “Seierstad's enormously well written depictions of the perpetrator, the victims, and the Norway where this could happen makes the abstract real and shows us that the most horrible things can take place among all that we perceive as safe and normal. The wounds from Utøya will not heal on its own. They need Åsne Seierstad's brave, sensitive, and competent treatment.” —Sam Sundgren, Svenska Dagbladet “It is a broad, well written, and important story, in form and writing much like a novel. Seierstad follows some of the people whose destinies abruptly cross one another on the island of Utøya, partly the perpetrator and partly some of his victims. She meets them all with compassion, at eye levela close-up technique that makes the moment when the bullets start to fly almost unbearable.” —Lars Linder, Dagens Nyheter
One of Us has the feel of a nonfiction novel. Like Norman Mailer's The Executioner's Song and Truman Capote's In Cold Blood, it has an omniscient narrator who tells the story of brutal murders and, by implication, sheds light on the society partly responsible for them. Although those two books are beautifully written, I found One of Us to be more powerful and compelling. For Capote and Mailer, the murderer loomed as an antihero, a tragic figure defying the conventions and expectations of mainstream America…As Seierstad weaves the stories of Utoya's campers with her central narrative about Breivikrevealing the mundane details of their family lives, their youthful ambitions, idealism and naïvetéthe book attains an almost unbearable weight. This tragedy isn't literary and symbolic; it's the real thing…Seierstad has written a remarkable book, full of sorrow and compassion…she has confronted Norway's greatest trauma since the Nazi occupation, without flinching and without simplifying…One of Us must have been difficult to write, and yet from the opening pages it has an irresistible force. At times I wanted to put it down but couldn't.
The New York Times Book Review - Eric Schlosser
The nonfiction horror story told in One of Us: The Story of Anders Breivik and the Massacre in Norway moves slowly, inexorably and with tremendous authority. It's a sober book that smells like fresh construction, a house built from plain hard facts. You're forced to bring your own emotion, and it pools beneath the steady sentences…It's said that exact detail is uniquely helpful when it comes to mending after terrible events. If it is true, as Stephen Jay Gould contended, that "nothing matches the holiness and fascination of accurate and intricate detail," then Ms. Seierstad has delivered a holy volume indeed.
The New York Times - Dwight Garner
★ 03/02/2015 Journalist Seierstad (The Bookseller of Kabul) delivers a vivid, thoroughly researched, and suspenseful account of the 2011 massacre that killed 77 people in her native Norway. On July 22, Anders Behring Breivik disguised himself as a policeman and set off a bomb in Oslo's government quarter, killing eight. He then made his way to the island of Utøya, where he murdered an additional 69 people, most of them teenagers attending a camp sponsored by Norway's Labour Party. Seierstad's comprehensive investigation examines that fateful day, the events that led up to it, and the trial that followed. She also chronicles the troubled life and radicalization of the convicted killer, the mismanaged police response, and the government's reaction. The book features evocative portraits of some of the victims and brims with vivid descriptions of the villages, city squares, buildings, and fjords of Norway, touching on the country's politics, changing demographics, and cultural shifts. With a reporter's passion for details and a novelist's sense of story, Seierstad's book is at once an unforgettable account of a national tragedy and a lively portrait of contemporary Norway. 8 pages of b&w photos. Agent: Sarah Chalfant, Wylie Agency. (Apr.)
04/01/2015 Journalist Seierstad (The Angel of Grozny) tackles the emotional and tragic story of the Oslo murders committed by Anders Breivik, telling not only the killer's story but the stories of those who lost their lives that fateful day in July 2011. The author's research is based on memories, accounts, communications, and interviews with those intimately involved in the events and is done tastefully, attempting not to dramatize or exaggerate the tragedy but to clearly present the mental and emotional influences that affected Breivik's development and led him and the others to that moment. Also explained is how the nation and those whose families were torn apart dealt with the devastation's aftermath. The subject matter is sensitive and dark; however, Seierstad's approach is straightforward and his tone even. He takes great care to share the narratives and lives of those who became Breivik's victims. This intense work studies one of the most brutal slayings in Norway, recounting the various cultural and socioeconomic influences upon Breivik's maturation. It also tells a clear and detailed description of the perpetrator's mental state and his lifetime of anger and paranoia. VERDICT A powerful read that sociologists, historians, and political science students alike will find very informative. [See Prepub Alert, 10/13/14.]—Elizabeth Zeitz, Otterbein Univ. Lib., Westerville, OH
2015-02-04 A chilling descent into the mind of mass murderer Anders Breivik."It was only supposed to be an article for Newsweek," writes veteran combat journalist Seierstad (The Angel of Grozny: Orphans of a Forgotten War, 2008, etc.) of the origins of this long book—a touch too long, in need of some judicious streamlining. The long arm of editor Tina Brown drew Seierstad deep into a story that she'd watched unfold in her native Norway, a country about which she hadn't written before. Her explorations of Breivik, who coldly gunned down 69 people at a youth summer camp after setting off a bomb in Oslo that killed another 8, have the unsettling quality that readers will associate with novelist Stieg Larsson, whose investigative reporting in next-door Sweden turned up a deep-running vein of fanatical right-wing hatreds and xenophobia. In Breivik's case, the metamorphosis from gadabout to obsessive computer gamer and then unmoored killer has no sure inevitability. It could have turned out much differently, but it also might just have had to happen, as Seierstad's portentous opening pages suggest. As neatly as possible, given the complexity of the story, the author unfolds the narrative of a Kurdish refugee family with Breivik's developing anti-Muslim sentiments, seemingly connected with the publication of a fake manifesto promising a Scandinavian jihad. Fakery and invented scenarios form a theme, from forged diplomas to Breivik's certainty that the Marxists were out to get him. What is certain, however, is that his killing spree, described in gruesome detail, was thoroughly and carefully planned from the beginning. On being told that he had disrupted the sense of security that blanketed the quiet nation, Breivik smiled and said, "That's what they call terror, isn't it?" Rather diffuse but thoroughly grounded in documented fact—as a result, it packs all the frightening power of a good horror novel.