What Is the What

About this book

In a heartrending and astonishing novel 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 hes driven from his home as a boy and walks with thousands of orphans to Ethiopia where he finds safety for a time. Valentinos 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.