On December 6th, FLAD will host Nathan Thrall, an American journalist, analyst and essayist living in Jerusalem, for another edition of Meet the Author – Encounters with American Writers, which brings us his latest book – to the book ‘A Day in the Life of Abed Salama’ (Zigurate, 2023).

Every week, Nathan Thrall walked through the imposing and manicured gates of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem – considered the best university in Israel – paying almost no attention to the fact that underneath there was a ghetto. Amata, and its poverty and endless queues at checkpoints, are part of the view offered to the university’s modern and well-cared for campus.

Ignorance of this reality, just two kilometers from where he lives, led Nathan Thrall to Abed Salama, father of little Milad, a young Palestinian who died in an accident with the bus that was taking him to his school for a field trip that, for weeks, so excited Milad.

Abed Salama’s story is the story of a very personal tragedy, but also one that so many Palestinians living in the West Bank go through in their daily lives, of the indignities and hardships they experience – such as when Abed Salama tried to search for his son’s body, but could not because he was not allowed to go to the hospital where he was.

Being Jewish and critical of Israel is not an easy task at any time, says Nathan Thrall, even less so living in Israel, as he said in a recent interview. But after Hamas’s attacks on Israel on October 7, it’s an even lonelier task.

A contributor to, among other publications, The New York Times Magazine, The New York Review of Books, and the London Review of Books, he directed for a decade the Arab-Israeli Project of the International Crisis Group, an independent organization dedicated to conflict prevention.

On December 6, at 6:30 pm, FLAD welcomes Nathan Thrall for another session of Meet the Author – Meetings with American writers, to talk about this latest book ‘A Day in the Life of Abed Salama’, in a session that will be moderated by journalist Isabel Lucas.

The session is open and admission is free, upon confirmation to eventos.cultura@flad.pt.