What Is the What

Dave Eggers

Nov 2007 · Sold by Vintage

About this eBook

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The epic novel based on the life of Valentino Achak Deng who, along with thousands of other children —the so-called Lost Boys—was forced to leave his village in Sudan at the age of seven and trek hundreds of miles by foot, pursued by militias, government bombers, and wild animals, crossing the deserts of three countries to find freedom.

When he finally is resettled in the United States, he finds a life full of promise, but also heartache and myriad new challenges. Moving, suspenseful, and unexpectedly funny, What Is the What is an astonishing novel that illuminates the lives of millions through one extraordinary man.

“A testament to the triumph of hope over experience, human resilience over tragedy and disaster.” —Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times

"An absolute classic.... Compelling, important, and vital to the understanding of the politics and emotional consequences of oppression." —People

Ratings and reviews

I tried finding a way to write a cohesive review of this book, but everything I wrote down sounded too trite or newsie. So, i crossed off everything and wrote at the top of a new page: what do I think about the book? The following anecdotes are a result of this. I lost track at times at the fact that Dave Eggers was the writer. This is a good thing, especially with a nonfiction novel--he immerses himself deep enough into the character that I can believe, from his writing, that there were times he thought himself to be Sudanese, walking through the bush, and responding to the name Valentino Achak Deng. As a reader, I was drawn in by the strikingly similar yet contrasting images between the flashbacks of the life in the bush and the present-day events in Atlanta. As a human, I was finally allowed to understand the heartbreak and suffering that Valentino and the other children experienced. The whole Darfur situation is made all the more believable after hearing a first-hand account. The perspective changed from “those people in Africa way across the ocean,” to “this is what I went through as a child.” The cyclical plot structure allows the sequence of events to seem like a story, not like fascinating excerpt from a history book. I was a bit surprised that there was no real mention of a religion. It would seem natural that anyone put through that kind of a life would call out to a higher power or even to make one up if they could think of none to call out to. It would seem natural for someone in their situation to believe in a heaven of some sort, so they could hop for and be comforted by the fact that there exists something other than what they’ve been given.

The most touching but heart breaking book I've read. Dave Eggers truly sheds light on the Lost Boys with this inspirational novel, full of crazy and seemingly impossible twists of fate blended with humor, joy, sadness, and loss all at the same time. I highly reccomend the tale of Valentino Achack Deng to anybody.

This is a must-read. Everyone should know the tragedy that befell the people of South Sudan, the walking boys, how great and extreme the cost of their freedom was

About the author

DAVE EGGERS is the author of many books, among them The Circle, The Eyes and the Impossible, The Monk of Mokha, A Hologram for the King, What Is the What, and The Museum of Rain. He is the cofounder of 826 Valencia, a youth writing and tutoring center which has inspired dozens of similar nonprofit organizations around the world, and the founder of McSweeney's, an independent publisher. He has been a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award, and the National Book Critics Circle Award, and is the recipient of the Dayton Literary Peace Prize, the Muhammad Ali Humanitarian Award for Education, and the American Book Award.