Hey, it's Empire's Book of the Day. I'm Andrew Limbaugh. Today's book covers a tragedy in the Middle East,

one that predates Israel's current war, but says a lot about the relationship between Israelis and

Palestinians. It's called A Day in the Life of Abed Salama, the Anatomy of a Jerusalem tragedy.

And it's about a school bus crash that happened on a rainy day in Jerusalem in 2012. Abid Salama is the father of one of the

students who died. He and writer Nathan Therall spoke to NPR's Lafadal about using this story

as a way of really laying out what life is like under occupied rule.

I should say they initially spoke before Hamas attacked Israel on October 7th and Israel's ensuing

response.

Leila eventually catches up with Throlet to check in on the reaction to the book after the war.

That's all after the break.

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Distant wars, murky conflicts, diplomacy behind closed doors.

On our new show, Sources and Methods.

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helping you understand why distant events matter here at home.

Listen to sources and methods on the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts.

In Nathan Thrill's new book, A Day in the Life of Abad Salama, the anatomy of a Jerusalem tragedy,

Thrill tells the story of a bus accident in which six Palestinian kindergartners and a teacher burned to death.

One of the children is a five-year-old boy named Miland.

His father, Abed Salama, is the main narrator of this story as he searches for his son in the wake of the accident.

There were people who said that a lot of children are taken to an Israeli army base close to the accident,

but it didn't have a permit to enter there or even reach the area.

...