Magnificent.

He weaves scenes from the aftermath of the accident with passages of historical context that explain the physical and legal boundaries that shape the lives of Palestinians living in East Jerusalem.

...a compelling work of nonfiction, a book that is by turns deeply affecting and, in its concluding chapters, as tense as a thriller. It takes a single episode and, by gathering the testimony of everyone involved, even tangentially, it constructs not only a meticulously detailed account of that one event but perhaps the clearest picture yet of the reality of daily life in the occupied territories.

A Day in the Life of Abed Salama is an important book, and one that closely examines the intricacies of injustice perpetrated on the Palestinian population by the Israeli government, its systems and plenty of its Jewish citizens. Yet it does so with an almost clinical remove.

It told, in clear-eyed, unsentimental prose, the story of a terrible accident in the West Bank.

The author writes coolly, carefully, without rhetoric or invective. He does not claim neutrality — the daily humiliations of Israeli occupation thud like a drumbeat on every page — but he avoids arm-twisting reportage or cartoonish history. No one portrayed here lacks humanity or complexity.

A penetrating, wide-ranging, heart-wrenching exploration of life in Palestine under Israeli occupation. I know of no other writing on Israel and Palestine that reaches this depth of perception and understanding..

Thrall doesn’t mince words. He writes openly, eloquently, clearly, and directly, providing a detailed account of life under colonization.

Through the painstaking accumulation of detail after detail [Thrall] enables the reader who has never been to Palestine to experience life under Israeli occupation.

The genius of Thrall’s book lies in its ability to unearth the lives, aspirations, and sentiments of his protagonists.

Riveting.

Thrall’s taut, journalistic account of Abed Salama’s daylong search to discover what has become of his son is an agonizing, infuriating, heartbreaking indictment of Israel’s occupation and how it makes ordinary life for Palestinians all but impossible.

A unique window onto the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in this captivating profile of Abed Salama.

A powerful study.