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Norwegian journalist Åsne Seierstad's most recent book, Two Sisters: A Father, His Daughters, and Their Journey Into the Syrian Jihad, is a heart-pounding, minute-by-minute thriller tracing the radicalization of two teenage girls. In the fall of 2013, the two Somali youth abandoned their family and their adopted home in Oslo to travel into Syria and become part of a jihadist movement. But as soon as they disappeared, their father dedicated his existence to finding them and bringing them home. Seierstad follows his travels back and forth to Syria as he enlists anyone from law enforcement to arms traders to filmmakers to assist in his cause, risking his own life countless times. As she explores the questions of faith and fanaticism that divide the family, Seierstad also asks broader questions about belief, understanding, and what forces truly drive seemingly regular people into radicalism.

How to listen to The New York Public Library Podcast

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