Two Sisters, by the international bestselling author Åsne Seierstad, tells the unforgettable story of a family divided by faith. Sadiq and Sara, Somali immigrants raising a family in Norway, one day discover that their teenage daughters Leila and Ayan have vanished—and are en route to Syria to aid the Islamic State. Seierstad’s riveting account traces the sisters’ journey from secular, social democratic Norway to the front lines of the war in Syria, and follows Sadiq’s harrowing attempt to find them.
Employing the same mastery of narrative suspense she brought to The Bookseller of Kabul and One of Us, Seierstad puts the problem of radicalization into painfully human terms, using instant messages and other primary sources to reconstruct a family’s crisis from the inside. Eventually, she takes us into the hellscape of the Syrian civil war, as Sadiq risks his life in pursuit of his daughters, refusing to let them disappear into the maelstrom—even after they marry ISIS fighters. Two Sisters is a relentless thriller and a feat of reporting with profound lessons about belief, extremism, and the meaning of devotion.
With Åsne in conversation is Mary Kay Magistad -- please join us!
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Åsne Seierstad is an award-winning Norwegian journalist and writer known for her work as a war correspondent. She is the author of One of Us: The Story of a Massacre in Norway—and Its Aftermath, The Bookseller of Kabul, One Hundred and One Days: A Baghdad Journal, Angel of Grozny: Orphans of a Forgotten War, and With Their Backs to the World: Portraits of Serbia. She lives in Oslo, Norway.
Mary Kay Magistad is creator and host of the “Whose Century Is It?” podcast, a Webby Award honoree about ideas, trends and twists shaping the 21st century. Mary Kay also teaches international journalism to undergrads in UC Berkeley’s summer journalism minor program and, for more than two decades, was an award-winning international correspondent, reporting in some 40 countries in Asia and Africa. Mary Kay was a 1999-2000 Nieman fellow and a 2001-2002 Radcliffe fellow, both at Harvard University.
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Employing the same mastery of narrative suspense she brought to The Bookseller of Kabul and One of Us, Seierstad puts the problem of radicalization into painfully human terms, using instant messages and other primary sources to reconstruct a family’s crisis from the inside. Eventually, she takes us into the hellscape of the Syrian civil war, as Sadiq risks his life in pursuit of his daughters, refusing to let them disappear into the maelstrom—even after they marry ISIS fighters. Two Sisters is a relentless thriller and a feat of reporting with profound lessons about belief, extremism, and the meaning of devotion.
With Åsne in conversation is Mary Kay Magistad -- please join us!
--
Åsne Seierstad is an award-winning Norwegian journalist and writer known for her work as a war correspondent. She is the author of One of Us: The Story of a Massacre in Norway—and Its Aftermath, The Bookseller of Kabul, One Hundred and One Days: A Baghdad Journal, Angel of Grozny: Orphans of a Forgotten War, and With Their Backs to the World: Portraits of Serbia. She lives in Oslo, Norway.
Mary Kay Magistad is creator and host of the “Whose Century Is It?” podcast, a Webby Award honoree about ideas, trends and twists shaping the 21st century. Mary Kay also teaches international journalism to undergrads in UC Berkeley’s summer journalism minor program and, for more than two decades, was an award-winning international correspondent, reporting in some 40 countries in Asia and Africa. Mary Kay was a 1999-2000 Nieman fellow and a 2001-2002 Radcliffe fellow, both at Harvard University.
Two Sisters, by the international bestselling author Åsne Seierstad, tells the unforgettable story of a family divided by faith. Sadiq and Sara, Somali immigrants raising a family in Norway, one day discover that their teenage daughters Leila and Ayan have vanished—and are en route to Syria to aid the Islamic State. Seierstad’s riveting account traces the sisters’ journey from secular, social democratic Norway to the front lines of the war in Syria, and follows Sadiq’s harrowing attempt to find them.
Employing the same mastery of narrative suspense she brought to The Bookseller of Kabul and One of Us, Seierstad puts the problem of radicalization into painfully human terms, using instant messages and other primary sources to reconstruct a family’s crisis from the inside. Eventually, she takes us into the hellscape of the Syrian civil war, as Sadiq risks his life in pursuit of his daughters, refusing to let them disappear into the maelstrom—even after they marry ISIS fighters. Two Sisters is a relentless thriller and a feat of reporting with profound lessons about belief, extremism, and the meaning of devotion.
With Åsne in conversation is Mary Kay Magistad -- please join us!
--
Åsne Seierstad is an award-winning Norwegian journalist and writer known for her work as a war correspondent. She is the author of One of Us: The Story of a Massacre in Norway—and Its Aftermath, The Bookseller of Kabul, One Hundred and One Days: A Baghdad Journal, Angel of Grozny: Orphans of a Forgotten War, and With Their Backs to the World: Portraits of Serbia. She lives in Oslo, Norway.
Mary Kay Magistad is creator and host of the “Whose Century Is It?” podcast, a Webby Award honoree about ideas, trends and twists shaping the 21st century. Mary Kay also teaches international journalism to undergrads in UC Berkeley’s summer journalism minor program and, for more than two decades, was an award-winning international correspondent, reporting in some 40 countries in Asia and Africa. Mary Kay was a 1999-2000 Nieman fellow and a 2001-2002 Radcliffe fellow, both at Harvard University.
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Employing the same mastery of narrative suspense she brought to The Bookseller of Kabul and One of Us, Seierstad puts the problem of radicalization into painfully human terms, using instant messages and other primary sources to reconstruct a family’s crisis from the inside. Eventually, she takes us into the hellscape of the Syrian civil war, as Sadiq risks his life in pursuit of his daughters, refusing to let them disappear into the maelstrom—even after they marry ISIS fighters. Two Sisters is a relentless thriller and a feat of reporting with profound lessons about belief, extremism, and the meaning of devotion.
With Åsne in conversation is Mary Kay Magistad -- please join us!
--
Åsne Seierstad is an award-winning Norwegian journalist and writer known for her work as a war correspondent. She is the author of One of Us: The Story of a Massacre in Norway—and Its Aftermath, The Bookseller of Kabul, One Hundred and One Days: A Baghdad Journal, Angel of Grozny: Orphans of a Forgotten War, and With Their Backs to the World: Portraits of Serbia. She lives in Oslo, Norway.
Mary Kay Magistad is creator and host of the “Whose Century Is It?” podcast, a Webby Award honoree about ideas, trends and twists shaping the 21st century. Mary Kay also teaches international journalism to undergrads in UC Berkeley’s summer journalism minor program and, for more than two decades, was an award-winning international correspondent, reporting in some 40 countries in Asia and Africa. Mary Kay was a 1999-2000 Nieman fellow and a 2001-2002 Radcliffe fellow, both at Harvard University.
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