The day Norway lost its innocence: Author examines story behind the 2011 massacre

GWEN IFILL:

Now the latest addition to the NewsHour Bookshelf.

One terrible day in Oslo, two separate incidents left 77 people dead and shook the country to its core. That July day in 2011 is the focus of journalist Asne Seierstad's newest book, "One of Us: The Story of Anders Breivik and the Massacre in Norway."

Jeffrey Brown talked to her recently at Busboys and Poets, a bookstore and restaurant in the D.C. area.

JEFFREY BROWN:

Asne Seierstad, welcome to you.

ASNE SEIERSTAD, Author, "One of Us: The Story of Anders Breivik and the Massacre in Norway": Thank you.

JEFFREY BROWN:

I want to start with a big question, because you have written about one troubled individual. You have also looked at a larger society and its changes.

Was it necessary to do both to see what happened that day?

ASNE SEIERSTAD:

Oh, definitely.

We don't grow up in vacuums. We grow up in societies. And as the title of the book indicates, one of us — he was one of us. He was — maybe the book is also about us, what made him into a terrorist. And, of course, there are personal reasons, psychological reasons, but there could also be political reasons for becoming a terrorist.

So I think it's made of three stories in the book, is, what made Anders Breivik go to that island, kidnap those teenagers? What made the teenagers come to the island? Why were they there? What was their political awakening? And then the broader picture of our society, of Norway, of Europe.

JEFFREY BROWN:

So, Anders Breivik, you document his very troubled early childhood, socially awkward, obsession with video games, turning to right-wing blogs. Were you able to get inside his head?

ASNE SEIERSTAD:

Luckily, I didn't get all the way into his head. That's not possible.

But he has a very well-documented life, because of the psychiatrist record of his early childhood, social services, earlier — early documents from the 1980s. And then he wrote a diary. I followed 10 weeks of the court. And I got access to 20,000 pages of interrogation of him, his close family, his friends, and so on.

And then he also wrote letters. So with all this material, I have tried to track his life. And, as you said, it's a life of failures, a series of failures. And it's a life of rejection. And in the end, he is also rejected by the very, very far right and the anti-jihadist — and that's when he starts buying weapons and buying ingredients for his bomb.

So I think it's important to try to figure out what made it. And it's all documented. It through his own words.

JEFFREY BROWN:

The question of course becomes — and even through his trial — whether he was seen or not. Right? He focused a lot of his anger on what he saw as Norway's permissive society.

But he himself didn't want to be seen as insane. He wanted the world to see him as knowing exactly what he was doing.

ASNE SEIERSTAD:

Yes, that was very important for him.

He called the massacre a book launch, because he had written 1,500 pages, a tract, a manifesto. And he tried to publish it, but nobody was interested. It's really a mishmash. It's difficult to read.

But he had calculated, like, how many people do I have to kill in order to be read? And he…

(CROSSTALK)

JEFFREY BROWN:

Literally like that, how many people…

ASNE SEIERSTAD:

Twelve — he thought he could — 12 was enough. He ended up killing 77.

He called this a wakening up for Europe, that they should now understand the problems with multiculturalism, the problems with Islam through reading his work. So, of course, if he was — got a verdict as a madman, he wouldn't get any followers. But it seems he doesn't really have the ability to inspire. That's a problem of his whole life.

JEFFREY BROWN:

Well, so when you use this term one of us, how much did it shake the psyche of the country? What were the aftereffects?

ASNE SEIERSTAD:

Well, it did shake us a lot, because we have — believing in this innocent feeling of nothing will ever happen to us, because all catastrophes, they're always broad and happening to anyone else.

So, of course, society's first feeling was like, he's mad or he's sick and — fine, we're healthy, you know?

JEFFREY BROWN:

He's not one of us, in that sense.

ASNE SEIERSTAD:

Exactly.

(CROSSTALK)

JEFFREY BROWN:

But, on the other hand…

ASNE SEIERSTAD:

Then we realized that doesn't get us anywhere, to make him just like another one or the other.

JEFFREY BROWN:

What about for you personally? This is the first time you looked at your own country and wrote about it. What did you see?

ASNE SEIERSTAD:

It was very difficult to write about my own country, because I have always been the outsider looking in.

And suddenly I was going into this ongoing story about ourselves. What helped me was trying to get above the story and thinking of people who had never heard about Norway. So I'm trying to see my own country with fresh eyes.

And, also, he lived on my street. We went to the same gym, because, like, I shouldn't not care. He was one of my neighbors. So, not that I knew him, but it's a small country, and it's — yes, it's important to try to come to terms with.

JEFFREY BROWN:

All right, the book is "One of Us."

Asne Seierstad, thank you very much.

ASNE SEIERSTAD:

Thank you.