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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. Valentino's travels bring him in contact with government soldiers, janjaweed-like militias, liberation rebels, hyenas, lions, disease and starvation--and unexpected romances. In this book, 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 man faces in a world collapsing around him.

Product Identifiers

PublisherBlackstone Audio, Incorporated

ISBN-101602832625

ISBN-139781602832626

eBay Product ID (ePID)127368109

Product Key Features

Publication Year2007

TopicGeneral, Literary, Historical

Book TitleWhat Is the What : the Autobiography of Valentino Achak Deng; a Novel

LanguageEnglish

GenreFiction

AuthorDave Eggers

FormatCompact Disc

Dimensions

Item Height1.7in

Item Length5.9in

Item Weight17.6 Oz

Item Width5.1in

Additional Product Features

Intended AudienceTrade

Dewey Edition22

ReviewsI have been interacting with the Lost Boyssince the late 1980s, from the time they were first displaced in Sudan to theirarrival in the United States. I thought I had heard and seen it all. Butreading Valentino's story has touched emotions in me I didn't even know I had.Dave Eggers tells the story of Sudan through Valentino's eyes, but he alsoelucidates the best and worst of our common humanity., Dave Eggers has done something remarkable withthis book. He has managed to cross many barriers both real and artificial totell the story of one man's tragedy and triumph in a way that emphasizes hissimple humanity above the drama of his terrible situation. It is a book thatshows there is no reason why geographical and cultural divides should preventus from attempting to understand each other as citizens of this world., An excellent audiobook...Reading in a clear,convincingly expansive African cadence that is a pleasure to the ear, DionGraham sounds all the right notes of bewilderment, fear, discovery, mirth, andjoy in Valentino's coming-of-age in the Kakuma refugee camp and his abruptexodus to the land of plenty, catching both the otherness and the universalityof his experience and providing a compelling personal window on an ongoingglobal tragedy., Told with humor, humanity, and bottomlesscompassion for his subject...It is impossible to read this book and not be humbled,enlightened, transformed., Reworking thispowerful tale with both deep feeling and subtlety, Eggers finds humanity andeven humor, creating something much greater than a litany of woes or a scriptfor 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'sexperience., Eggers writes smoothly and never seems tointerfere with the message of his subject. No one who reads this book willforget its scenes of acute suffering and the triumph of the human spirit., A sweet and sometimes very funny story of oneboy's coming of age...Strange, beautiful, and unforgettable., What Isthe What is a novel that possesses the best qualities of a documentaryfilm: the conviction of truthfulness and the constant reminder of thearbitrariness of fate, for worse and for better. By setting his story ofAfrican annihilation and survival as a story of American immigration, Eggersensures that it belongs to us all, as it must., [An] engrossing epic...Eggers'limpid prose gives Valentino an unaffected, compelling voice and makes hisnarrative by turns harrowing, funny, bleak, and lyrical. The result is ahorrific account of the Sudanese tragedy but also an emblematic saga ofmodernity-of the search for home and self in a world of unending upheaval., As an emotionalprimer about the impacted recent history of the Sudan, about the fightingbetween north and south, government and rebels, Arabs and Dink, murahaleen andSPLA, Eggers' ventriloquism could hardly be bettered. He makes Achak's anauthentic and affecting voice of the grimmest narrative of our times., An absolute classic...Compelling, important, andvital to the understanding of the politics and emotional consequences ofoppression., [Eggers] is as adroitat telling another person's biography as he is narrating his own...Labeled as anovel, this work nonetheless has a historical basis and lends a personal faceto the brutality of civil war, squalor, and the struggle for survival...While visceraland heartrending, Deng's and Eggers' joint story is ultimately a powerful taleof hope. When both People and the ever-glum Michiko Kakutani of the NewYork Times rave, how can one resist?, A book with the imaginative sweep, the scopeand, above all, the emotional power of an epic. Intense, straightforward, litby lightning flashes of humor, wisdom and charm., What Is the What is a story of realglobal catastrophe--a work of such simple power, straightforward emotion, andgenuine gravitas that it reminds us how memoirs can transcend the personal toilluminate large, public tragedies as well...Exudes authenticity.

Number of Volumes17 Vols.

Dewey Decimal813/.6

Edition DescriptionUnabridged Edition