A Norwegian Tragedy: Anders Behring Breivik and the Massacre on Utøya

by Aage Storm Borchgrevink

On 22 July 2011 a young man named Anders Behring Breivik carried out one of the most vicious terrorist acts in post-war Europe. In a carefully orchestrated sequence of actions he bombed government buildings in Oslo, resulting in eight deaths, then carried out a mass shooting at a camp of the Workers' Youth League of the Labour Party on the island of Utoya, where he murdered sixty-nine people, mostly teenagers. How could Anders Behring Breivik - a middle-class boy from the West End of Oslo - end up as one of the most violent terrorists in post-war Europe? Where did his hatred come from?In "A Norwegian Tragedy," Aage Borchgrevink attempts to provide an answer. Taking us with him to the multiethnic and class-divided city where Breivik grew up, he follows the perpetrator of the attacks into an unfamiliar online world of violent computer games and anti-Islamic hatred, and demonstrates the connection between Breivik's childhood and the darkest pages of his 1500-page manifesto.This is the definitive story of 22 July 2011: a Norwegian tragedy.

Genres: Nonfiction, True Crime, Crime, History, Terrorism, Psychology, Biography

300 pages, Hardcover

First published October 2, 2012

About the author

Aage Storm Borchgrevink (born 1969) is a Norwegian writer and literary critic.

Reviews

[Da1tonthegreat · Rating 1 out of 5]

Here's one example of the author's cringeworthy prose, regarding World of Warcraft: "As you carry out quests and gain experience, your avatar reaches higher levels. You rise up through the game’s levels and achieve higher ranks, as in a Masonic lodge." This might be the single worst simile I've read this side of high school. He also mentions avatars in this passage, which is a topic he harps on throughout the book, even at one point going on an irrelevant tangent about the 2009 James Cameron film. Borchgrevink attempts to tie together some kind of thesis about Breivik's online avatars contrasting with his IRL self but it just comes off as a contrived attempt at profundity.

Frankly, I was sure the author was a boomer. Between his labored explanations of Internet and video game common knowledge, his self-assured neoliberal globalist viewpoint, and his befuddlement at Breivik's motives, it seemed obvious – but no, Borchgrevink was born in 1969. Like many cosmopolitan liberals who blindly and smugly support mass immigration and all the other 'progressive' causes, he's a midwit imbecile that thinks he's a genius. Instead of critically engaging with Breivik's ideology, he psychoanalyzes him and tries to write him off as a mentally insane loser with a bad childhood. This book is absolutely terrible.

[Ingrid Wergeland · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sterk og solid lesing. Jeg har lest flere bøker om Utøya, hørt og sett et utall dokumentarer. Denne er er kompletterende, viktig og vond lesing. Jeg har grått og vært kvalm underveis. Aldri glemme ✊🏻

[Anja Regine · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interessant om Anders Behring Breiviks oppvekst og familieforhold. Kanskje noe i overkant lang. Jeg deler forfatterens tro på at dette er noe vi bør vite, fordi det er viktig for de fleste av oss her i byen (kanskje i landet) å forsøke å forstå hva det egentlig var som hendte den 22. juli 2011. Og det som hendte var resultatet av denne mannens liv frem til den dagen.
Dessuten var det godt å få litt flere fakta og ikke bare spekulasjoner rundt hva omsorgssvikten besto av. Og jeg tror at man har godt av å bli minnet på at det viktigste vi gjør er å gi barn trygghet.

[Ingvild]

Boken bærer preg av å ha blitt publisert kun ett år etter 22.juli, så om du bare skal lese én bok om saken, så tror jeg ikke jeg hadde valgt denne. Men når det er sagt, så er det en veldig interessant bok, og grundig i og med at den ble utgitt i 2012.

[Lina · Rating 3 out of 5]

Maybe more like a 2.5.

I took issue to many of the choices the author made in the style of writing and ultimately ended up questioning exactly why he chose to wrote the book and what he chose to focus on. I still think that the book has value, though I would be interested in reading another book on the subject to see how it differs from Borchgrevink's. I think the book does raise some important issues about society, etc. and it has made me think a bit.

[Helen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Astoundingly well-researched and providing a good blend of auto-biographical, political, journalistic and psychological insight into the waste of oxygen that is Breivik, but this felt like such a long slog to get through.
Maybe it was a more accessible read in its original language; regardless it will probably remain one of the more respected books on the subject.

[Miranda · Rating 5 out of 5]

An exceptional book that digs deep into the roots of the 22 July terrorist attack in Norway, 2011. I've never read something that analyzes and critiques so well while also being written in a compelling story-telling format. I've learned a lot from this book, both about how Anders Behring Breivik was able to commit a massacre of so many young people and rationalize it (or rather rationalize it to himself) and about how even the most evil of people can be humanized and their deeds can be traced back to injury, abuse, and mistreatment, often in their childhood. I had to put this book down several times to absorb everything I'd just read, and sometimes to stomach what I'd read from survivors'/rescuers'/involved people's accounts. As someone who sometimes finds non-fiction books a bit dull, this is an excellent read that draws you in deeper and deeper. I'll definitely be looking out for more of Aage Borchgrevink's writing.
xx MVF

[TK Larsen · Rating 1 out of 5]

Egentlig ikke noen bra bok; den bygger på en for billig hypotese om at ABBs mor er "årsak" til massakren på Utøya...

[Royce Ratterman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Our author opens with and covers a few other crime figures: Theodore John Kaczynski (aka: the Unabomber), John Lennon's assassin, Mark David Chapman, and Hayashi Yoken, the 22-year-old monk who set fire to Kinkaku-ji - the Temple of the Golden Pavilion in Kyoto, Japan. These three were given similar serious psychiatric diagnoses and found to be sane and placed in prison. Society's Radicalized Zombies. Prior to the attacks, Breivik told a Norwegian TV celebrity: "In one year's time, I'll be three times as famous as you." You will also read the tales of Utøya survivors and rescuers.

One of, if not the most, important influential detriments to Breivik's psychological development seems to lurk in the shadows... the Labor Party, its failed ideologies, and illogical practices throughout its history, as well as in. This is, of course, the same Party present when the German Socialist Army took the country of Norway for their Führer on 9 April 1940; the same party whose 'leader' was in office at the time of the attacks, and who secured the top position in NATO, a position that today has certainly assisting in a possible future full-blown WWIII outcome. Nothing publicly seems to have been learned from past or present experiences. A dark history of failure coupled with naivety may well have paved the pathway that Breivik walked upon. When one has what appears in their mind as limited choices.

Readers can easily observe, especially within historical hindsight, the naïveté and sociopolitical ignorance embraced by liberal leaning political Parties across the globe, along with the massively severe consequences incurred as witnessed coming to full fruition by mid-2023. Liberalism has always laid the foundation for its progression through the step-by-step phases of socialism to communism to Authoritarianism/Totalitarianism/Fascism style regimes.

As we know, "no murderer has eternal life abiding in them." -1 John 3:15b

- Excerpts from: A European Declaration of Independence, 2083, page 926

"Make a sound in the east, then strike in the west."
In any battle the element of surprise can provide an overwhelming advantage. Even when face to face with an enemy, surprise can still be employed by attacking where he least expects it. To do this you must create an expectation in the enemy's mind through the use of a feint.

"Hide a knife behind a smile."
Charm and ingratiate yourself to your enemy. When you have gained his trust, move against him in secret.

- Other works that may be of interest:

The Road to Serfdom by Friedrich Hayek (1944)

The Origins of Totalitarianism by Hannah Arendt (1949)

China's Hundred Weeds: A Study of the Anti–Rightist Campaign in China (1957–58) by Naranarayan Das (1979)

America Against America by Wang Huning (1991)

Towards a Surveillant Society: The Rise of Surveillance Systems in Europe by Thomas Mathiesen (2013)

1000 Years of Joys and Sorrows: A Memoir by Ai Weiwei (November 2021)

[Max · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is an interesting insight into Anders and what made him do what he did. It is very well researched and tells you a lot of things that most people do not know about the case.

[Delphine · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Perhaps the hatred that hung over the city that Friday afternoon did not stem mainly from online aggression and doomsday notions, from violent computer games, the structural violence of consumer culture, class angst in the West End of Oslo, the gang culture of the nineties, friction in a multicultural society or a male feeling of frustration in the vaginal state. I believe that the dark impulse came from his (Breivik's) childhood, not from counter-jihadism." Reconstructie van vrijdag 22 juli 2011, de dag waarop Anders Behring Breivik een bomaanslag pleegde in Oslo en 69 linkse tieners vermoordde op het eiland Utoya. Borchgrevink graaft diep in het verleden van de terrorist en schetst het bredere sociologische kader. Op het einde van het boek legt hij iets te expliciet de link naar de turbulente jeugd van de dader en het falen van de jeugdzorg, volgens hem ligt daar de kern van het probleem. Een beetje eenzijdig, maar niettemin verhelderende literatuur.

[Kitty Red-Eye · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hadde ikke noe ønske om å legge den fra meg. Selv om historien er gitt og velkjent, er boka spennende. ABB skildres egentlig ikke, snarere skisseres forskjellige impulser som i uskjønn forening ble grunnlaget for massemorderen. Forfatteren prøver ikke å si at boka alene er tilstrekkelig som forklaring - han sier rett ut at noen hel forklaring får vi kanskje aldri - men hans vektlegging av oppveksten på den ene siden og oksidentalismens dystre tradisjoner på den andre gir et rammeverk for å forklare individet Breivik som lite, om noe, annet jeg har lest har formådd å gjøre.

Selv om det ikke har vært noen mangel på forstyrrende, skakende og hjerteskjærende historier fra 22. juli er enkelte av overlevende- og båtfolkberetningene sterk kost. Anbefales ikke å ha på nattbordet.

[Eivind Vaksvik · Rating 5 out of 5]

Imponerende bok. Aage Storm Borchgrevink har åpenbart brukt mye tid på arbeidet med denne boka.

[Kjersti · Rating 2 out of 5]

Mmmm, spekket med idiotiske klisjeer og dramatiske adjektiver. Hjelper liksom ikke helt med interessante betrakninger når det føles som å lese noe fra De blå sidene i Hjemmet.