What Is the What

“Told with humor, humanity, and bottomlessncompassion for his subject…It is impossible to read this book and not be humbled,nenlightened, transformed.”

“[An] Astonishing story…of immerse power,nemotion, and even in the midst of horror, beauty.”

“A book with the imaginative sweep, the scopenand, above all, the emotional power of an epic. Intense, straightforward, litnby lightning flashes of humor, wisdom and charm.”

“A testament to the triumph of hope overnexperience, human resilience over tragedy and disaster.”

“A moving, frightening, improbably beautifulnbook.”

“An absolute classic…Compelling, important, andnvital to the understanding of the politics and emotional consequences ofnoppression.”

“A sweet and sometimes very funny story of onenboy’s coming of age…Strange, beautiful, and unforgettable.”

“What Is the What is a story of realnglobal catastrophe—a work of such simple power, straightforward emotion, andngenuine gravitas that it reminds us how memoirs can transcend the personal tonilluminate large, public tragedies as well…Exudes authenticity.”

“As an emotionalnprimer about the impacted recent history of the Sudan, about the fightingnbetween north and south, government and rebels, Arabs and Dink, murahaleen andnSPLA, Eggers’ ventriloquism could hardly be bettered. He makes Achak’s annauthentic and affecting voice of the grimmest narrative of our times.”

“[An] engrossing epic…Eggers’nlimpid prose gives Valentino an unaffected, compelling voice and makes hisnnarrative by turns harrowing, funny, bleak, and lyrical. The result is anhorrific account of the Sudanese tragedy but also an emblematic saga ofnmodernity-of the search for home and self in a world of unending upheaval.”

“Reworking thisnpowerful tale with both deep feeling and subtlety, Eggers finds humanity andneven humor, creating something much greater than a litany of woes or a scriptnfor political outrage. What Is the What does what a novel does best,nwhich is to make us understand the deeper truths of another human being'snexperience.”

“An excellent audiobook…Reading in a clear,nconvincingly expansive African cadence that is a pleasure to the ear, DionnGraham sounds all the right notes of bewilderment, fear, discovery, mirth, andnjoy in Valentino’s coming-of-age in the Kakuma refugee camp and his abruptnexodus to the land of plenty, catching both the otherness and the universalitynof his experience and providing a compelling personal window on an ongoingnglobal tragedy.”

“What Isnthe What is a novel that possesses the best qualities of a documentarynfilm: the conviction of truthfulness and the constant reminder of thenarbitrariness of fate, for worse and for better. By setting his story ofnAfrican annihilation and survival as a story of American immigration, Eggersnensures that it belongs to us all, as it must.”

“Dave Eggers has done something remarkable withnthis book. He has managed to cross many barriers both real and artificial tontell the story of one man’s tragedy and triumph in a way that emphasizes hisnsimple humanity above the drama of his terrible situation. It is a book thatnshows there is no reason why geographical and cultural divides should preventnus from attempting to understand each other as citizens of this world.”

“I have been interacting with the Lost Boysnsince the late 1980s, from the time they were first displaced in Sudan to theirnarrival in the United States. I thought I had heard and seen it all. Butnreading Valentino’s story has touched emotions in me I didn’t even know I had.nDave Eggers tells the story of Sudan through Valentino’s eyes, but he alsonelucidates the best and worst of our common humanity.”

“[Eggers] is as adroitnat telling another person’s biography as he is narrating his own…Labeled as annovel, this work nonetheless has a historical basis and lends a personal facento the brutality of civil war, squalor, and the struggle for survival…While visceralnand heartrending, Deng’s and Eggers’ joint story is ultimately a powerful talenof hope. When both People and the ever-glum Michiko Kakutani of the NewnYork Times rave, how can one resist?”

“Eggers writes smoothly and never seems toninterfere with the message of his subject. No one who reads this book willnforget its scenes of acute suffering and the triumph of the human spirit.”