This year’s Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction went to Jewish author Nathan Thrall for his book A Day in the Life of Abed Salama: Anatomy of a Jerusalem Tragedy. Published days before Oct. 7, the book focuses on a Palestinian father’s efforts to uncover news about his son following a bus crash. The Pulitzer jury called it “…a finely reported and intimate account of life under Israeli occupation of the West Bank.”

While Thrall’s book predates the Oct. 7 attack in Israel by Hamas, his book tour has been conducted in its shadow and has been a frequent magnet for controversy. Some tour stops canceled planned talks by Thrall, saying they would be “insensitive” in the midst of Israel’s war against Hamas. After the book’s publication, a local Jewish federation protested Thrall’s plan to teach a Bard College

course on whether Israel’s treatment of Palestinians could be considered apartheid.

Thrall is a Bard College professor based in Jerusalem; his work often is highly critical of Israel.