In a heartrending and astonishing novel, Dave Eggers illuminates the history of the civil war in Sudan through the eyes of Valentino Achak Deng, a refugee now living in the United States. We follow his life as he's driven from his home as a boy and walks, with thousands of orphans, to Ethiopia, where he finds safety -- for a time. Valentino's travels, truly Biblical in scope, bring him in contact with government soldiers, janjaweed-like militias, liberation rebels, hyenas and lions, disease and starvation -- and a string of unexpected romances. Ultimately, Valentino finds safety in Kenya and, just after the millennium, is finally resettled in the United States, from where this novel is narrated. In this book, written with expansive humanity and surprising humor, we come to understand the nature of the conflicts in Sudan, the refugee experience in America, the dreams of the Dinka people, and the challenge one indomitable man faces in a world collapsing around him.
The title, from an African creation myth, is also a metaphor for making sense of an alien world. Sudanese refugee Valentino Achak Deng escapes his homeland, spends years in refugee camps, and then emigrates to America. The novel is told with a touch of humor, without which the brutality of Deng's experiences would be hard to take. Dion Graham's accent sounds authentic enough and colors the reading without overpowering it. He catches Deng's mystified wonder as he tries to make sense of the contrasts he discovers in American life. Graham also moves fluidly from Deng's African accent to urban-American black accents. The novel's first-person point of view is compelling. Graham does it justice as he takes listeners into the story. R.C.G. (c) AudioFile 2007, Portland, Maine
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Eggers finds humanity and even humor, creating something much greater than a litany of woes or a script for political outrage. What Is the What does what a novel does best, which is to make us understand the deeper truths of another human being's experience
About the Author
Dave Eggers is the author of A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, You Shall Know Our Velocity!, and How We Are Hungry. He is the editor of the literary quarterly McSweeney's and the founder of 826 Valencia, a San Francisco writing lab for young people. He lives in Iceland and California.
