'King: A Life' and 'A Day in the Life of Abed Salama' are Pulitzer Prize winners

NPR's Book of the Day

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Books, Arts

4.2 • 672 Ratings

🗓️ 3 January 2025

⏱️ 17 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Today, we revisit conversations with two 2024 Pulitzer Prize-winning authors. First, King: A Life, the biography by Jonathan Eig, provides a fresh perspective on the life of one of America's most important activists. In today's episode, Eig speaks with NPR's Steve Inskeep about how Martin Luther King, Jr. rose to prominence at such a young age, and how he maintained his spirituality through deep scrutiny and surveillance. Then, A Day In The Life of Abed Salama is a true story that takes place in Jerusalem. In 2012, a bus collided with a semi trailer. Six Palestinian kindergarteners and a teacher burned to death. Abed Salama, who is the father of one of the children, has to navigate physical and bureaucratic barriers as he searches for his son. Author Nathan Thrall revisits the journey and the vivid people, both Palestinian and Jewish, Salama encountered. In today's episode, Thrall and Salama speak with NPR's Leila Fadel about the emotional odyssey and the book's reception after the Hamas attack on Israel in October.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, it's Ambers Book of the Day. I'm Andrew Limbong. All this week, we've been revisiting
0:06.7	conversations about books that were finalists for the National Book Award. But of course,
0:11.8	when it comes to literary prizes, they're not the only game in town. Today, we bring you two
0:17.7	conversations with authors who are now Pulitzer Prize winners.
0:21.7	In a bit, we'll hear from Nathan Thrill about his book, A Day in the Life of Abed Salama,
0:26.0	about the ripple effects of a fatal accident outside of Jerusalem.
0:30.3	But first, Jonathan Aig won the Pulitzer for a biography for his book, King A Life.
0:35.2	It's a look at Martin Luther King, Jr.
0:37.0	A subject you'd think it'd be
0:38.0	impossible to get a new and interesting take on. But I spoke with Empire Stevensky when this
0:43.5	book first came out and talked about King's complicated relationship with his own father,
0:48.3	something I'd never heard about before. That's ahead.
0:52.2	In the U.S., national security news can feel far away from daily life.
0:56.9	Distant wars, murky conflicts, diplomacy behind closed doors.
1:01.4	On our new show, Sources and Methods.
1:03.5	NPR reporters on the ground bring you stories of real people,
1:07.2	helping you understand why distant events matter here at home.
1:10.8	Listen to sources and methods on the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts. helping you understand why distant events matter here at home.
1:14.9	Listen to sources and methods on the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts.
1:21.0	The life of Martin Luther King is one of the most famous in American history.
1:24.4	But in that life, one thing is easy to overlook.
1:29.4	How young he was, King became a nationally known civil rights leader in his mid-20s. When he gave the famous I Have a Dream speech in Washington in 1963, he was in his early
	...

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