Afghan Family Values

The top of the Serbian pop charts is an unlikely place for a Norwegian journalist. But Åsne Seierstad's brief incarnation as a Balkan songstress, with her 2001 hit Laganese , is just one indication of the lengths to which she'll go for a story. While researching her book on Serbian society, With Their Backs to the World (2000), she paid a visit to singer Rambo Amadeus, whose musical style she describes as "acid-horror-funk." Amadeus balked at being included in the book — he just didn't give interviews. But a Norwegian folk song he heard her singing caught his ear. "Sing your fisherman...