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After the Taliban fell in 2001, Åsne Seierstad moved in with a bookseller and his family in Kabul. The Bookseller of Kabul (2002) was translated into more than forty languages, and the bookseller’s wife, Suraia Rais, sued her in Norway: an Oslo court ruled against Seierstad in 2010, and she won on appeal. Born in Oslo in 1970, she had already reported from Russia, China and Kosovo; she went on to Baghdad during the 2003 invasion and to Chechnya. One of Us (2013) tells the life of Anders Breivik, who carried out the attacks of 22 July 2011 in Norway, and became the basis of the Netflix film 22 July. In 2025 Ufred: Russland fra innsiden, her reportage from Russia at war, won the Brage Prize, the Booksellers’ Prize and the Critics’ Prize. The ten writers below share her method: go where the war or the crime happened, stay, and let ordinary people carry the story.
By Lisanne Swart · 10 authors · Reportage · War and its aftermath · Updated October 2026
Quick answer
The closest matches are Svetlana Alexievich, who builds books from the testimony of ordinary people in the Soviet wars and their aftermath, Christina Lamb, who has reported from Afghanistan for decades, and Barbara Demick, who reconstructs daily life under regimes through a handful of families. The list also includes a Russian reporter murdered for her work in Chechnya, a war correspondent from the 1930s, and a critic who asks what journalists take from the people they write about.
10 authors like Åsne Seierstad
Where to start if you loved Åsne Seierstad
If you want ordinary people’s voices from Russia and its wars, read Svetlana Alexievich.
Secondhand Time (2013): testimony from the end of the Soviet Union.
If you want more Afghanistan, read Christina Lamb.
The Sewing Circles of Herat (2002): a British correspondent’s Afghan years.
If One of Us is your Seierstad, read Dave Cullen.
Columbine (2009): a school massacre rebuilt from police files and interviews.
If you want the case against the method, read Janet Malcolm.
The Journalist and the Murderer (1990): what reporters owe the people they write about.
If you want more Seierstad, start with The Bookseller of Kabul.
Then One of Us (2013) and The Afghans; Ufred (2025) is so far available only in Norwegian.
Frequently asked questions about authors like Åsne Seierstad
Who writes like Åsne Seierstad?
Svetlana Alexievich, Christina Lamb and Barbara Demick are the closest: Alexievich for ordinary voices from the Soviet wars, Lamb for Afghanistan, Demick for whole countries told through a few families. Dave Cullen is the match for One of Us.
Does Åsne Seierstad have a new book?
Her newest book is Ufred: Russland fra innsiden (2025), reportage from Russia at war, which won the Brage Prize, the Booksellers’ Prize and the Critics’ Prize in Norway. It has not yet been published in English.
Was Åsne Seierstad sued over The Bookseller of Kabul?
Yes. Suraia Rais, the bookseller’s wife, sued her in Norway; an Oslo court ruled against Seierstad in 2010, she won on appeal, and the Supreme Court declined to review the case.
What should I read after One of Us?
Dave Cullen’s Columbine (2009), which reconstructs a school massacre and its killers from police files and interviews. Philip Gourevitch’s book on the Rwandan genocide reports the aftermath of mass killing through survivors.
Which Åsne Seierstad book should I read first?
The Bookseller of Kabul (2002) for her best-known book, or One of Us (2013) for her most ambitious. Two Sisters follows a father whose daughters left Norway to join the war in Syria.
Is Åsne Seierstad like Svetlana Alexievich?
In subject, yes: both write about Russia, Afghanistan and the people a war happens to. Alexievich removes herself and arranges witnesses’ monologues, while Seierstad tells a narrative and stays present as the reporter.
Sources
- Åsne Seierstad — Wikipedia
- Åsne Seierstad vinner av Kritikerprisen for beste sakprosabok — Cappelen Damm
- Svetlana Alexievich — Wikipedia
- Anna Politkovskaya — Wikipedia
List last reviewed 31 October 2026.
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