This is also a book about looking for a way to belong and not finding it. The perpetrator ultimately decided to opt out of the community and strike at it in the most brutal of ways.
As I worked on the book, it came to me that this was also a story about contemporary Norway. It is a story about us.
To all of you who have told me drops or streams of stories, written to me or commented on my work: We made this book together.
Through the book, I want to give something back to the community from which it sprang. My royalties for this book in Norway are being donated in full to the ‘En av oss’ (One of Us) foundation. The foundation’s statutes allow for the money to be distributed to a wide range of causes nationally and internationally, in the areas of development, education, sport, culture and the environment.
I have chosen to let those who contributed most to the book decide which causes will receive support.
I think that would be in the spirit of their children.
Åsne Seierstad
Oslo, 20 January 2014
Bibliography
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Borchgrevink, Aage Storm: En norsk tragedie – Anders Behring Breivik og veiene til Utøya. Gyldendal Forlag, Oslo, 2012. (Published in English as A Norwegian Tragedy. Anders Behring Breivik and the Massacre on Utøya. Translated by Guy Puzey. Polity, 2013.)
Breivik, Jens: Min skyld? – En fars historie. Juritzen Forlag, Oslo, 2014.
Bromark, Stian: Selv om sola ikke skinner – et portrett av 22. juli. Cappelen Damm, Oslo, 2012. (Published in English as Massacre in Norway: The 2011 Terror Attack on Oslo and the Utøya Youth Camp. Translated by Hon Khiam Leong. Potomac Books, 2014.)
Christensen, Marit: Moren – historien om Wenche Behring Breivik. Aschehoug Forlag, Oslo, 2013.
Cullen, Dave: Colombine. Hachette Book Group, New York City, 2009.
Fatland, Erika: Året uten sommer. Kagge Forlag, Oslo, 2012.
Griffin, Roger: Terrorist’s Creed: Fanatical Violence and the Human Need for Meaning. Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke, 2012.
Høigård, Cecilie: Gategallerier. Pax Forlag. Oslo, 2007.
Holen, Øyvind: HipHop-hoder – fra beat till bygde-rap. Spartacus Forlag, Oslo, 2005.
Holen, Øyvind & Noguchi, Michael: HIPHOP – Graffiti, Rap, Breaking og DJ-ing. Cappelen Damm, Oslo, 2009.
Hverven, Tom Egil & Malling, Sverre: Terrorens ansikt – skisser fra 22. Juli-rettsaken. Flamme Forlag, Oslo, 2013.
Indregard, Sigve (ed.): Motgift – akademisk respons på den nye høyreekstremismen. Flamme Forlag/Forlaget Manifest, Oslo, 2012.
Jupskås, Anders Ravik: Ekstreme Europa – ideologi, årsaker og konsekvenser. Cappelen Damm, Oslo, 2012.
Juvet, Bjørn & Juvet, Aase Margrethe: Med livet som innsats – historien om en redningsaksjon på Utøya. Gyldendal Forlag, Oslo, 2012.
Kjelstadli, Knut (ed.): Norsk innvandringshistorie. Bd. 1-3. Pax Forlag, Oslo, 2003.
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Lahlum, Hans Olav: Et kvart liv – Håvard Vederhus 1989–2011. Cappelen Damm, Oslo, 2013.
Lippestad, Geir: Det vi kan stå for. Aschehoug Forlag, Oslo, 2013.
Moen, Elisabeth Skarsbø: Profet i eget land – Historien om Carl I. Hagen. Gyldendal Forlag, Oslo, 2006.
Moen, Jo Stein & Giske, Trond: Utøya – en biografi. Gyldendal Forlag, Oslo, 2012.
Moi, Toril: Stemmer. Språk og oppmerksomhet. Aschehoug Forlag, Oslo, 2013.
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Sørensen, Øystein, Hagtvent, Bernt & Steine, Bjørn Arne (eds): Høyreektremisme – ideer og bevegelser i Europa. Dreyer Forlag, Oslo, 2012.
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Quotations
The page numbers for the notes that appear in the print version of this title are not in your e-book. Please use the search function on your e-reading device to search for the relevant passages documented or discussed.
Doktor Glas by Hjalmar Söderberg. Quoted from Doctor Glas, English translation by Paul Britten Austin (London: Harvill, 2002).
‘If I Said You Had a Beautiful Body Would You Hold It Against Me’. Written by David Bellamy. © Bellamy Brothers Music, Sony/ATV Harmony.
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‘Onga våre’ (‘Our Children’) by Einar Skjæraasen. Translation by Sarah Death.
‘Flickan i Havanna’ (‘A Girl Lives in Havana’) by Evert Taube. Translation by Silvester Mazzarella.
‘Natural Born Killaz’. Written by Andre Young and O’Shea Jackson. © Sony/ATV Tunes LLC, Gangsta Boogie Music, WB Music Corp., Universal Music Corp.
‘Hip-Hop Lives’. Written by Lawrence KRS-One Parker and Marley Marl. © Universal Music Publishing Corp.
The Qur’an. Translated and with an introduction by Tarif Khaladi (London: Penguin Classics, 2008).
‘Revolusjonens røst’ (‘The Voice of the Revolution’) by Rudolf Nilsen. Translation by Anthony Thompson.
H. L. Mencken.
‘What is Political Correctness?’ by William S. Lind. From Lind (ed.), ‘Political Correctness’: A Short History of an Ideology (Alexandria: Free Congress Foundation, 2004). Lind’s original quotation begins ‘Most Americans look back at the 1950s as a good time.’
The Qur’an. Translated and with an introduction by Tarif Khaladi (London: Penguin Classics, 2008).
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; The Qur’an. Translated and with an introduction by Tarif Khaladi (London: Penguin Classics, 2008).
‘Baby’. Written by Christine Flores, Ashanti S. Douglas, Christopher Bridges, Keith Edward Crouch, Terius Nash, Christopher A. Stewart and Justin Bieber. © Rze Music Publishing, Pookietoots Publishing, Songs Of Universal Inc., Havana Brown Publishing, Universal Music Corp., Ludacris Worldwide Publishing Inc., Baeza Music LLC, Bieber Time Publishing, 2082 Music Publishing, Human Rhythm Music.
‘Childhood’. Written by Michael Jackson. © Mijac Music.
‘Nothing Else Matters’. Written by Andrew Michael Saidenberg, James Alan Hetfield, Nathianiel Raubenheimer and Lars Ulrich. © Cloud 9 Holland Music Publishing, Creeping Death Music, World Of Andy Music, Universal Music Corp.
‘Å Kunne æ Skrive’ by Lars Bremnes. Translation by Sarah Death.
‘Childhood’. Written by Michael Jackson. © Mijac Music.
The Qur’an. Translated and with an introduction by Tarif Khaladi (London: Penguin Classics, 2008).
‘Vi Suser Avgårde’. Written by Lars Lillo Stenberg.
‘Hallelujah’. Written by Leonard Cohen and Theresa Christina Calonge de Sa Mattos. © Bad Monk Publishing, Sony/ATV Songs LLC.
‘Helt om Natten, Helt om Dagen’. Written by Lars Vaular. Translation by Sarah Death.
‘Å Kunne æ Skrive’. Written by Lars Bremnes. Translation by Sarah Death.
A Note About the Author
Åsne Seierstad is an award-winning Norwegian journalist and writer known for her work as a war correspondent. She is the author of The Bookseller of Kabul, One Hundred and One Days: A Baghdad Journal, and Angel of Grozny: Inside Chechnya. She lives in Oslo, Norway. You can sign up for email updates here.
ALSO BY ÅSNE SEIERSTAD
The Angel of Grozny: Orphans of a Forgotten War
A Hundred and One Days: A Baghdad Journal
With Their Backs to the World: Portraits from Serbia
The Bookseller of Kabul
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Contents
Title Page
Copyright Notice
Author’s Note
Prologue
Part One
A New Life (1979)
Swirls of Light
Changes in the Country
Silkestrå
Peeing on the Stairs
Al-Anfal
Our Children
Young Dreams
To Damascus
Asking for Protection
A Place on the List
‘High Quality Fake Diplomas!!’
Choose Yourself a World
Three Comrades
Writings
The Book
How Can I Get Your Life?
Don’t Make Friends with Anyone Before You Get There!
Patriots and Tyrants
Not Just an Outfit
The President’s Speech
Poison
The Chemist’s Log
All We Could Dream Of
Summer Fever
I Love You
Friday
When It’s All Over
Does Your Child Have Any Distinguishing Features?
But Never Naivety
Part Two
Narcissus on Stage
The Monologue
The Heart of the Matter
The Will to Live
Psycho Seminar
The Verdict
Part Three
The Mountain
Weaver’s Heaven
The Sentence
Epilogue
Bibliography
Quotations
A Note About the Author
Also by Åsne Seierstad
Copyright
Farrar, Straus and Giroux
18 West 18th Street, New York 10011
Copyright © 2013 by Åsne Seierstad
Translation copyright © 2015 by Sarah Death
All rights reserved
Originally published in Norwegian in 2013 by Kagge, Norway, as En av oss
English translation originally published in 2015 by Virago Press, Great Britain
Published in the United States by Farrar, Straus and Giroux
First American edition, 2015
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Library of Congress Control Number: 2015932749
Hardcover ISBN: 978-0-374-27789-5
E-book ISBN: 978-0-374-71020-0
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