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What Is the What Press Info WHAT IS THE WHAT a novel by DAVE EGGERS Separated from his family, Valentino Achak Deng becomes a refugee in war-ravaged southern Sudan. His travels bring him in contact with enemy soldiers, with liberation rebels, with hye- nas and lions, with disease and starvation, and with deadly murahaleen (militias on horse- back)—the same sort who currently terrorize Darfur. Based closely on actual experiences, What is the What is heartrending and astonishing, filled with adventure, suspense, tragedy and, finally, triumph. “Dave Eggers has done something remarkable with this book. He has managed to cross many barriers both real and artificial to tell the story of one man’s tragedy and triumph in a way that emphasizes his simple humanity above the drama of his ter- rible situation. It is a book that shows there is no reason why geographical and cul- tural divides should prevent us from attempting to understand each other as citi- zens of this world.” —UZODINMA IWEALA, author of Beasts of No Nation “I cannot recall the last time I was this moved by a novel. What is the What is that rare book that truly deserves the overused and scarcely warranted moniker of ‘sprawling epic.’ Told with humor, humanity, and bottomless compassion for his subject, one Valentino Achak Deng, Eggers shows us the hardships, disillusions, and hopes of the long suffering people of southern Sudan. This is the story of one boy’s astonishing capacity to endure atrocity after atrocity and yet refuse to abandon decency, kindness, and hope for home and acceptance. It is impossible to read this book and not be humbled, enlightened, transformed. I believe I will never forget Valentino Achak Deng.” —KHALED HOSSEINI, author of The Kite Runner “What is the What is a novel that possesses the best qualities of a documentary film: the conviction of truthfulness, and the constant reminder of the arbitrariness of fate, for worse and for better. By setting his story of African annihilation and survival as a story of American immigration, Eggers ensures that it belongs to us all, as it must.” —PHILIP GOUREVITCH, author of We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will be Killed With Our Families: Stories from Rwanda “I have been interacting with the Lost Boys since the late 1980s, from the time they were first displaced in Sudan to their arrival in the United States. I thought I had heard and seen it all. But reading 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 also elucidates the best and worst of our common humanity.” —JOHN PRENDERGAST, International Crisis Group All proceeds from this book will go to the Valentino Achak Deng Foundation, which distributes funds to Sudanese refugees in America; to rebuilding southern Sudan, beginning with Marial Bai; to organizations working for peace and humanitarian relief in Darfur; and to the college education of Valentino Achak Deng. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Dave Eggers is the author of three previous books—A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, You Shall Know Our Velocity!, and How We Are Hungry. He is the editor of McSweeney’s, a quarterly maga- zine and book-publishing company, and is co-founder of 826 Valencia, a network of nonprofit writing and tutoring centers for young people. As a journalist, his work has appeared in The New Yorker, Esquire, and The Believer. In 2004 he co-taught a class at the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism, out of which grew the Voice of Witness series of books, designed to illuminate contemporary human crises through oral history. The first in the series, Surviving Justice: America’s Wrongfully Convicted and Exonerated, was published in 2005. Voices from the Storm, about the residents of New Orleans who sur- vived Hurricane Katrina, will appear in fall of 2006. The next in the series will give voice to former slaves in Sudan. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with his wife and daughter. OCTOBER 25 McSWEENEY’S BOOKS 478 pages // 6.5” x 9” // ISBN: 1-932416-64-1 For more information, email [email protected].
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