What is the What: A Novel

• Dave Eggers
• Vintage Canada, 2007
• Paperback, 538 pages
• ISBN: 9780676979497

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What Is the What is the story of Valentino Achak Deng, a refugee in war-ravaged southern Sudan who flees from his village in the mid-1980s and becomes one of the so-called Lost Boys. Valentino’s travels bring him in contact with

enemy soldiers, with liberation rebels, with hyenas and lions, with disease and starvation, and with deadly murahaleen (militias on horseback)–the same sort who currently terrorize Darfur. Eventually Deng is resettled in the United States with almost 4000 other young Sudanese men, and a very different struggle begins. Based closely on true experiences, What Is the What is heartbreaking and arresting, filled with adventure, suspense, tragedy, and, finally, triumph.

Dave Eggers is the author of three previous books, is the editor of McSweeney’s, a quarterly magazine and book-publishing company, and is co-founder of 826 Valencia, a network of nonprofit writing and tutoring centres for young people. As a journalist, his work has appeared in The New Yorker, Esquire and The Believer. He lives in the San Francisco Bay area with his wife and daughter.