Join us for a conversation with author Nathan Thrall as he discusses his latest book, A Day in the Life of Abed Salama -- winner of 2024 Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction. The conversation will be moderated by Omar Shakir, Israel and Palestine Director at Human Rights Watch.

Zoom link will be shared with the attendees on the day of the event.

Book Description: a work of narrative non-fiction, tells the story of Milad, a five year old excited for his school trip to a theme park on the outskirts of Jerusalem. But tragedy awaits: his bus is involved in a horrific accident. His father, Abed, rushes to the chaotic site, only to find Milad has already been taken away. Abed sets off on a journey to learn Milad’s fate, navigating a maze of physical, emotional, and bureaucratic obstacles he must face as a Palestinian.

Interwoven with Abed’s odyssey are the stories of Jewish and Palestinian characters whose lives and pasts unexpectedly converge: a kindergarten teacher and a mechanic who rescue children from the burning bus; an Israeli army commander and a Palestinian official who confront the aftermath at the scene of the crash; a settler paramedic; and two mothers who each hope to claim one severely injured boy.

Nathan Thrall received the 2024 Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction for A Day in the Life of Abed Salama. He is also the author of The Only Language They Understand: Forcing Compromise in Israel and Palestine. His writing has appeared in The New York Times Magazine, The Guardian, London Review of Books, and The New York Review of Books and been translated into more than two dozen languages. He spent a decade at the International Crisis Group, where he was director of the Arab-Israeli Project, and has taught at Bard College. He lives in Jerusalem.

Omar Shakir serves as the Israel and Palestine Director at Human Rights Watch, where he investigates human rights abuses in Israel, the West Bank, and Gaza and has authored several major reports, including a 2021 report comprehensively documenting how Israeli authorities are committing the crimes against humanity of apartheid and persecution against millions of Palestinians. As a result of his advocacy, the Israeli government deported Omar in November 2019.

A Day in the Life of Abed Salama — A Talk with Nathan Thrall & Omar Shakir