One of The New York Times Book Review's Ten Best Books of 2015 and a NYT Bestseller Widely acclaimed as a masterpiece; Åsne Seierstad’s One of Us is essential reading for a time when mass killings are so grimly frequent.On July 22; 2011; Anders Behring Breivik detonated a bomb outside the Norwegian prime minister's office in central Oslo; killing eight people. He then proceeded to a youth camp on the wooded island of Utøya; where he killed sixty-nine more; most of them teenage members of the country's governing Labour Party. In One of Us; the journalist Åsne Seierstad tells the story of this terrible day and its reverberations. How did Breivik; a gifted child from an affluent neighborhood in Oslo; become Europe's most reviled terrorist? How did he accomplish an astonishing one-man murder spree? And how did a famously peaceful and prosperous country cope with the slaughter of so many of its young?As in her international bestseller The Bookseller of Kabul; Seierstad excels at the vivid portraiture of lives under stress. She delves deep into Breivik's childhood; showing how a hip-hop and graffiti aficionado became a right-wing activist; a successful entrepreneur; and then an Internet game addict and self-styled master warrior who believed he could save Europe from the threat of Islam and multiculturalism. She writes with equal intimacy about Breivik's victims; tracing their political awakenings; teenage flirtations and hopes; and ill-fated journeys to the island. By the time Seierstad reaches Utøya and relates what happened there; we know both the killer and those he will kill. In the book's final act; Seierstad describes Breivik's tumultuous public trial. As Breivik took the stand and articulated his ideas; an entire country debated whether he should be deemed insane; and asked why a devastating sequence of police errors allowed one man to do so much harm.One of Us is at once a psychological study of violent extremism; a dramatic true crime procedural; and a compassionate inquiry into how a privileged society copes with homegrown evil. Lauded in Scandinavia for its literary merit and moral poise; One of Us is the true story of one of our age's most tragic events.
#576710 in Books imusti 2008-01-24Original language:EnglishPDF # 1 7.75 x 1.00 x 5.00l; .60 #File Name: 0349118892336 pagesAbacus UK
Review
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful. A book which will help people to start thinking independently and not influenced by the mediaBy UweI grew up in Germany during the Nazi time and agree in general with what Haffner is saying in this book. It would be good if the media people had read it before they reported that all the Germans were Nazis. Living for most of my live here in the USA the present election climate scares me a bit. The way the candidates and the media are trying to score points reminds me on the; sadly to admit; successful way Hitler fouled to many of the German people. I only hope that the voters here don't elect our next president on the basis of who can throw the biggest pile of dirt on his opponent.1 of 1 people found the following review helpful. well written and easy toBy rskVery interesting; well written and easy to read1 of 1 people found the following review helpful. RecommendBy Anne MartinThis guy is articulate and knows what he's talking about. He lived through the regime as a government attorney and dissident.
