The City of Abraham is a journey to the heart of the Israeli - Palestinian conflict, and an account of the shared roots of the three great monotheistic religions of the Middle East. It begins with a hill called Tel Rumeida, the site of the ancient city of Hebron, where the patriarch Abraham - from whom all Jews, Christians and Muslims ultimately claim descent - is supposed to have lived when he arrived in the Promised Land.

Through a mixture of reportage, travel writing and interviews, Platt strives to reconstruct the history of this significant place, from the biblical past to the current incarnation: presently, the settlement at Tel Rumeida stands on stilts above an excavated site in the north-west corner of the modern city of Hebron - in a sense, above the foundations of the state of Israel itself.