A day in the life of Abed Salama is a 2023 book by Nathan Thrall that was adapted from a long-form article he wrote in the New York Review of Books in 2021. The book tells the story of a 2012 bus accident in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and the efforts of the father of one of the children on the bus to reach the accident and then locate his child. Attempting to use the accident and the web of bureaucratic and physical obstacles preventing Abed Salama, the father and title character, to tell the wider story of the occupation, Thrall describes the occupation as "a hidden universe of suffering that touched nearly every Palestinian home."[1]
Release
editThe book was released on 3 October 2023, four days before the attack by Hamas on Israel that sparked the 2023 Israel–Hamas war. A number of previously planned events for the book's release, including a breakfast with US lawmakers, were cancelled in the weeks that followed. Remarking on the cancellations, Thrall told the Washington Post "It’s sad that people are frightened of having even a conversation about this book, which is conveying what it is to actually live in this place, for both Palestinians and Jews."[2]
External links
editSources
edit- Preston, Alex (October 12, 2023). "A Day in the Life of Abed Salama: A Palestine Story by Nathan Thrall – review". the Guardian. Retrieved November 7, 2023.
- Masad, Ilana (October 4, 2023). "Following a deadly bus accident, a man searches for his son". Washington Post. Retrieved November 7, 2023.
- Nast, Condé (October 2, 2023). "Briefly Noted Book Reviews". The New Yorker. Retrieved November 7, 2023.
- Ali, Rozina (October 1, 2023). "Book Review: 'A Day in the Life of Abed Salama,' by Nathan Thrall". The New York Times. Retrieved November 7, 2023.
- ^ Tonkin, Boyd (November 1, 2023). "A Day in the Life of Abed Salama". Financial Times. Retrieved November 7, 2023.
- ^ Nguyen, Sophia (November 2, 2023). "He wrote about a Palestinian tragedy. Then war broke out". Washington Post. Retrieved November 7, 2023.