A Day in the Life of Abed Salama: Anatomy of a Jerusalem Tragedy Audible Audiobook – Unabridged

Nathan Thrall (Author), Peter Ganim (Narrator), Macmillan Audio (Publisher)

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Immersive and gripping, an intimate story of a deadly accident outside Jerusalem that unravels a tangle of lives, loves, enmities, and histories over the course of one revealing, heartbreaking day.

Five-year-old Milad Salama is excited for a school trip to a theme park on the outskirts of Jerusalem. On the way, his bus collides with a semitrailer. His father, Abed, gets word of the crash and rushes to the site. The scene is chaos—the children have been taken to different hospitals in Jerusalem and the West Bank; some are missing, others cannot be identified. Abed sets off on an odyssey to learn Milad’s fate. It is every parent’s worst nightmare, but for Abed it is compounded by the maze of physical, emotional, and bureaucratic obstacles he must navigate because he is Palestinian. He is on the wrong side of the separation wall, holds the wrong ID to pass the military checkpoints, and has the wrong papers to enter the city of Jerusalem. Abed’s quest to find Milad is interwoven with the stories of a cast of Jewish and Palestinian characters whose lives and histories unexpectedly converge.

In A Day in the Life of Abed Salama, Nathan Thrall—hailed for his “severe allergy to conventional wisdom” (Time)—offers an indelibly human portrait of the struggle over Israel/Palestine and a new understanding of the tragic history and reality of one of the most contested places on earth.

A Macmillan Audio production from Metropolitan Books.

Listening Length

6 hours and 44 minutes
Author

Nathan Thrall
Narrator

Peter Ganim
Audible release date

October 3, 2023
Language

English
Publisher

Macmillan Audio
ASIN

B0BVKSB6QX
Version

Unabridged
Program Type

Audiobook
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Product details

Listening Length	6 hours and 44 minutes
Author	Nathan Thrall
Narrator	Peter Ganim
Whispersync for Voice	Ready
Audible.com Release Date	October 03, 2023
Publisher	Macmillan Audio
Program Type	Audiobook
Version	Unabridged
Language	English
ASIN	B0BVKSB6QX
Best Sellers Rank	#2,623 in Audible Books & Originals (See Top 100 in Audible Books & Originals) #5 in Middle East Politics & Government #7 in Israel & Palestine History (Audible Books & Originals) #18 in Middle Eastern Politics

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Customer reviews

4.4 out of 5

128 global ratings

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M. W. Daly

Unique

Reviewed in the United States on October 23, 2023

Verified Purchase

I find it impossible to use the typical praise - "Must Read", and all that - since that encompasses trivia and comedy and all sorts of writing that doesn't approach the quality and effect of this book. I found myself talking aloud, e.g. "Don't go there!"; "Keep him home!" The matter-of-factness of the book begs us to apply our own emotions. A quotation from a Justice of the Israeli Supreme Court is worth quoting here, perhaps now more than ever: "'Every person is a world and its entirety. The death of seven people is a disaster that cannot be measured by simple multiplication. The loss is greater than the sum of its parts."' I am addng "A day in the life" to the very short list of books I re-read every year.

21 people found this helpful

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Lynda E.

Excellent Unbiased Book

Reviewed in the United States on November 5, 2023

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Nathan Thrall, being Jewish himself and living in Jerusalem takes an incredibly courageous position by writing this book. He humanizes people on both sides of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and allows us to see how all the ill-conceived divisions in the West Bank have caused tremendous human loses for everyone. This book should be required reading in Universities and Colleges. Perhaps even high school.

6 people found this helpful

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Randal Hundley

The author was prohibited from speaking at the University of Arkansas

Reviewed in the United States on November 3, 2023

Verified Purchase

We need books like this, which broaden our perspectives. Our society needs to learn to deal with more nuance, and less focus on enemies/friends. Things are complicated. Sadly, Arkansas state policy prohibited the author from speaking at the U of A.

9 people found this helpful

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Junelle Preston

Enjoyable

Reviewed in the United States on October 31, 2023

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So sad but so well written. I highly recommend it to readers

4 people found this helpful

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Kindle Customer

So sad.

Reviewed in the United States on October 30, 2023

Verified Purchase

I would recommend this book to anyone who thinks there is only one side of a story or only one point of view.

12 people found this helpful

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M. S. Balter

A school bus accident that killed seven, in its full context

Reviewed in the United States on October 18, 2023

Verified Purchase

Nathan Thrall does a terrific job putting what might seem like an isolated road accident into its full Palestinian-Israeli context. Timely reading.

14 people found this helpful

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htown127

One of the best books I've read

Reviewed in the United States on October 22, 2023

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An incredible story of history and love. Cannot recommend this book enough.

13 people found this helpful

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Melanie D. Lipomanis

A different perspective and eye-opening

Reviewed in the United States on October 9, 2023

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This is the first viewpoint available to me from the Palestinian side of the conflict. As an older American, it has left me with many disturbing questions.

44 people found this helpful

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Top reviews from other countries

gerardpeter

A day in the West Bank

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 13, 2023

Verified Purchase

This is an important book that details the difficulty of life for Palestinian people in the West Bank. At its heart is a bus crash in 2012 which left numerous Palestinian children dead. The author argues that its ultimate cause lay in Israeli control of the West Bank.

I read this in the days after October 7 2023. Whatever the problems elaborated here, and there are many, I believe Hamas offers no solution at all. Equally, it seems the current situation in Israel/Palestine is unsustainable. It is possible to maintain both these positions without “taking sides” as the author demonstrates.

Nathan Thrall writes that life for Palestinians is made as difficult as possible, combining military brutality and administrative neglect. It is not the case that every Israeli is culpable and from the text we see that many want, and believe in, a better future for Jewish and non-Jewish people alike. But he says such intentions will be thwarted by the current structures of power and control.

Some details are upsetting.

The book has had several good reviews but has not attracted the attention it deserves. As events of the last month show, you cannot expect the problems set out by the author to just go away.

Miss AE

A very enlightening read

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 23, 2023

Verified Purchase

I read this book with great interest as I knew very little about the situation in Palestine. What an eye-opener!
The author wound the story of Abed and his family around the very sad and troubled history of the Palestine/Israel conflict. What I loved about the story was the everyday details of how the regular Palestinian lives his life, the history of the region is fascinating and the story about Abed's life is heart rending. This book has a lot to offer and I'm so glad I read it. Highly recommended.

One person found this helpful

Hilary L

Tragic true story

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 18, 2023

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A carefully researched story of a horrific bus crash near Jerusalem in which Palestinian schoolchildren died. The multiple causes leading up the crash are traced, along with the life histories of the the individuals and families involved. This is a moving insight into the lives of oppressed people and I felt outraged.

6 people found this helpful

Amazon Customer

A timely read

Reviewed in Canada on October 29, 2023

Verified Purchase

I just happened to pick this book up a few days before the Hamas attack. Based on a real incident it provides some realistic views of life in Gaza and the conditions underpinning some of the unrest.

One person found this helpful

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