Asne Seierstad

Asne Seierstad was born in 1970 and studied Russian, Spanish and the History of Philosophy at Oslo University. An internationally bestselling author, she has also received numerous awards for her journalism. She worked as a correspondent in Russia between 1993 and 1996 and in China in 1997. Between 1998 and 2000 she covered the Balkans, including the war in Kosovo, for Norwegian television. In 2000 she published her first book, With their Backs to the World: Portraits from Serbia. After September 11th 2001 she went to Afghanistan, reporting for a number of major Scandinavian newspapers. The following year she went back to live with an Afghan family and wrote The Bookseller of Kabul, which was first published in English in 2003. It became an international bestseller, selling over two million copies. The paperback edition remained in the Sunday Times top ten for over a year. In spring 2003 Asne Seierstad reported on the war in Iraq from Baghdad and later released A Hundred and One Days: A Baghdad Journal. In 2009 she wrote her critically acclaimed book about life in Chechnya, The Angel of Grozny. Following the atrocities in Oslo and Utoya in July 2011, she attended the trial of Anders Breivik and wrote several articles about the atrocities and their aftermath for Norwegian and international newspapers. She then began work on One of Us, which became a European bestseller.