A Day in the Life of Abed Salama: Anatomy of a Jerusalem Tragedy

A Day in the Life of Abed Salama: Anatomy of a Jerusalem Tragedy is a 2023 nonfiction book by the journalist Nathan Thrall. Having lived in Jerusalem for many years, it is both a personal story of a father’s struggle to find his son and an illustration of the structural conditions facing Palestinians living under Israeli occupation. Its publication closely coincided with the devastating assault that the militant group Hamas launched against Israel on October 7, 2023, which resulted in the deaths of around 1,200 Israelis and hundreds more taken hostage. In the wake of that attack and the sustained Israeli military response that followed, the book has drawn enormous attention now that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is once again at the heart of public discourse. It was an enormous critical success, winning the 2024 Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction, as well as being named a Best Book of the Year by The New York Times, The Financial Times, and other prestigious outlets.

This summary is based on the first hardcover edition (New York: Metropolitan Books, 2023).

Content Warning: The main event in this book is an actual bus accident where many people, including children, die or suffer grievous injuries. It also contains descriptions of political violence and other forms of sociopolitical oppression. Also, the Israel-Palestinian conflict is an extremely controversial issue that produces intense and often conflicting opinions. This summary adopts a voice that is generally critical of Israel and sympathetic to the plight of Palestinians but only to reflect as accurately as possible the voice of the author. The summary itself is not intended to endorse any political position.

Summary

The central event of this book is a school bus crash that occurred in 2012 (Thrall conspicuously leaves out the date of the incident in the text itself). A group of young children were going to an amusement park, but on the way, their bus was hit by a truck and burst into flames. The book begins with Abed Salama, whose five-year-old son Milad almost did not make the trip, learning the horrifying news that the bus was in a terrible accident. He rushes to the scene and struggles to gain an accurate account of what happened and where he can find his son.

Thrall then turns to Abed’s upbringing, centering on his love for a local girl named Ghazl and his involvement in the Palestinian movement. After serving prison time for resisting the Israeli occupation of the West Bank, his proposal to Ghazl collapses into family infighting, and he proceeds from one unhappy marriage to another before settling down with a woman named Haifa and having two sons. Other characters then join the scene, including Huda Dahbour, a local doctor who is able to provide emergency care at the accident; Radwan Tawam, the driver of the ill-fated bus; Dany Tirza, the Israeli director of the project to build a security barrier around much of the West Bank; and Nansy Qawasme, a young woman whose son was also involved in the accident.

After discussing the lives of these and other characters, Thrall returns once more to the accident, where the Israeli security apparatus made it extremely difficult for the timely arrival of emergency services. Many children die or suffer horrendous injuries, and the narrative follows three sets of anxious parents (Abed, Nansy, and Haya al-Hindi) as they struggle to find their child, much less learn of their condition. Tragically, all three parents lose a child in the accident, as Abed and Haya’s sons die at the scene, and Nansy’s son succumbs to his injuries hours later. His family shattered, Abed decides to speak up about the awful fate that befell his son and the oppressive social structures that he believes were responsible for the deaths of those children.