what_is_the_what_eggers
2008 Longlist

What is the What

artwork-image

ABOUT
THE BOOK

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 hyenas and lions, with disease and starvation, and with deadly murahaleen (militias on horseback)—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.

ABOUT
THE AUTHOR Dave
Eggers

Dave Eggers is the author of A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, You Shall Know Our Velocity, The Unforbidden is Compulsory, How We Are Hungry, Short Short Stories, Teachers Have It Easy, Surviving Justice, What is the What, How the Water Feels to the Fishes, The Wild Things, Zeitoun, A Hologram for the King, The Circle and Your Fathers, Where Are They? And The Prophets, Do They Live Forever?. A Hologram for the King and The Circle are both major film adaptations.

Dave Eggers is the founder of McSweeney’s independent publishing house, the 826 National network, and the nonprofit organisation ScholarMatch. He lives in Northern California with his family.

Dave Eggers is the author of A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, You Shall Know Our Velocity, The Unforbidden is Compulsory, How We Are Hungry, Short Short Stories, Teachers Have It Easy, Surviving Justice, What is the What, How the Water Feels to the Fishes, The Wild Things, Zeitoun, A Hologram for the King, The Circle and Your Fathers, Where Are They? And The Prophets, Do They Live Forever?. A Hologram for the King and The Circle are both major film adaptations.

Dave Eggers is the founder of McSweeney’s independent publishing house, the 826 National network, and the nonprofit organisation ScholarMatch. He lives in Northern California with his family.

 

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NOMINATING LIBRARY COMMENTS

Eggers’ powerful and topical novel blurs the boundaries between writing genres to illustrate the life of one of Sudanese civil war refugee.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Country
United States
Original Language
English
Author
Publisher
McSweeney’s Books

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