Thirteen-year-old Smadar Elhanan is walking down a street in Jerusalem on September 4th, 1997, listening to music on her device when a bomb goes off, blowing her to pieces. Three Palestinian suicide bombers and four other casualties are also among the dead. Ten years later after the incident, ten-year-old Abir Aramin is walking on a street near where Smadar died. There is a crowd of people protesting while she’s walking. Unfortunately, she is fatally shot in the head by an Israeli soldier who claims he was shooting at the protesters. Unable to access intensive medical care, she dies.
The tragedy of these two girl’s lives brings two fathers from different sides of a senseless war together as they share their pain and struggles. Bassam Aramin is a Palestinian Muslim and Rami Elhanan is an Israeli Jew. Despite their different nationalities and religions, they come together to share their story with the author who turns the story into a gripping tale of death, grief, and healing. Bassam and Rami met years before Abir was shot and her death further strengthens their bond for the deep trauma they now share.
They have now been traveling the world for almost a decade sharing their pain and using it as a healing mechanism. They are also calling for an end to the senseless the war that cost them their daughters. Bassam and Rami believe that by sharing their stories, they might be able to turn the tide. The author uses decades worth of interviews that Bassam and Rami have given to tell this story that still haunts them to this day. Their loss is always with them, and they battle it however they can, but their friendship has by far facilitated in their healing.
Throughout the book, Bassam and Rami account for their experiences of the war and how it has affected them throughout their lifetime. They deeply regret some things they did while fighting in the name of their country. They can’t help but feel like their actions might have somehow contributed to the gruesome deaths of their loving daughters. The author highlights the cycle of violence that war brings and questions whether their actions as teenagers have fueled this war to a point of no return.
The book also recounts the struggles of Smadar’s mother, Nurit who despite being silent on the pain of losing her daughter, the author details her passion for fighting for change through her activism of peace and holding the Israeli government responsible for her daughter’s death. Abir’s mother is deeply grieving and refrains from expressing it for the fear of the media parading her pain around. It is however clear how much she misses her daughter.
Despite the author’s lack of real experience with war and grief, Colum McCann successfully portrays the pain of Bassam and Rami while remaining true to the actual events that inspired the bond that these two fathers now share. Apeirogon is a gripping book about war, death, pain, grief, healing, and friendship. The victims of these tragedies find some sort of calm through this book even though it’s not enough to quell their anger towards a war that is still unfolding to this day.
