The definitive story of a shocking act of international terrorism that thrust an ordinary man into history and reshaped the destinies of three families.
On October 3, 1985, Leon Klinghoffer, a disabled Jewish New Yorker, and his wife boarded the Achille Lauro to celebrate their 36th wedding anniversary with a Mediterranean cruise. Four days later, four Palestinian fedayeen hijacked the Italian luxury liner and took the passengers and crew hostage. Leon Klinghoffer was shot in the head, his body and wheelchair thrown overboard. His murder became a flashpoint in the intractable struggle between Israelis and Arabs and gave Americans a horrifying preview of what it means when terrorism hits home.
In this richly reported book, drawing on multiple perspectives, Julie Salamon dispels the mythology that has grown around that shattering moment. What transpired on the Achille Lauro left the Klinghoffer family in the grip of irredeemable sorrow, while precipitating tragic reverberations for the wives and sons of Abu al-Abbas, the Palestinian mastermind behind the hijacking, and the family of Alex Odeh, a Palestinian-American murdered in Los Angeles in a brutal act of retaliation.
Through intimate interviews with almost all living participants, including one of the hijackers, Julie Salamon brings alive the moment-by-moment saga of the hijacking and the ensuing U.S.-led international manhunt; the diplomatic wrangling between the United States, Egypt, Italy, and Israel; and the long agonizing search for justice. The book also reveals the back story of the controversial opera about the Klinghoffer tragedy that provoked a culture war.
An Innocent Bystander is a masterful work of journalism that moves between the personal and the global with the pace of a geopolitical thriller and the depth of a psychological drama. Throughout lies the tension wrought by terrorism and its repercussions today.
Praise for An Innocent Bystander
“[Salamon’s] book’s greatest contribution is the way that it humanizes the political ordeal…her book offers valuable insight. Toward the end of her account, she quotes Peter Sellars, the director of John Adams’s opera “The Death of Klinghoffer.” He said he was drawn to the story of the “strange floating vessel that contained this explosive conflict,” saying it was a metaphor for how “we’re all on one planet and all in one boat.” By showing the common humanity of the individuals on the vessel, whether victims, perpetrators or administration officials, she proves that Sellars’s line … is true.”
– The New York Times Book Review
“This moving story stands as the most in-depth look at the hijacking to date. Salamon reinforces her place as one of today’s foremost chroniclers of American politics and culture.”
– STARRED PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
“Gripping. Salamon’s account of the strategizing of Palestinian, Israeli, and American diplomats, followed by the soldiers’ captures and subsequent escapes, are as engaging as a spy novel…An engrossing narrative of a notorious act of terror.”
– KIRKUS
“By telling the story of the Klinghoffer murder richly and elegantly, Salamon manages to capture the essence of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict—the injustice, the desperation, the horror, and the folly. Her book sparkles with insight.”
– Dan Ephron, author of Killing a King: The Assassination of Yitzhak Rabin and the Remaking of Israel
“Salamon plucks the story of the killing of one man out of the rush of history and holds it up for nuanced consideration. In so doing, she shows us how the events around a single murder continue to ripple outward, through the families of both the murder victim and the man who set that murder in motion. An illuminating, necessary book.”
– J.T. Rogers, author of Tony award winning OSLO