What is the What
Author: Dave Eggers, based on the story of Valentino Achak Deng
Publisher: Penguin General UK
Print Length: 560 pages
Genre: Novel, Fiction / Autobiographical Fiction, Realistic Fiction, Historical Fiction
Area: South Sudan, Sudan, Ethiopia
Topic: Civil War, Sudanese, Asylum & Asylum Seekers, Refugees & Forced Migration, Lived Migration, Children & Childhood, Disease, Hunger & Starvation, Military, Refugee Resettlement, Resilience
The true story of one boy’s courage in the midst of one of the world’s most violent conflicts.
At the heart of this astonishing novel is a true story of courage and endurance in the face of one of the most brutal civil wars the world has ever known. Valentino Achak Deng is just a boy when conflict separates him from his family and forces him to leave his small Sudanese village, joining thousands of other orphans on their long, long walk to Ethiopia, where they find safety – for a time. Along the way Valentino encounters enemy soldiers, liberation rebels and deadly militias, hyenas and lions, disease and starvation. But there are experiences ahead that will test his spirit in even greater ways than these…
Truly epic in scope, and told with expansive humanity, deep compassion and unexpected humour, What is the What is an eye-opening account of life amid the madness of war and an unforgettable tale of tragedy and triumph.
Table of Contents
Preface by Valentino Achak-Deng
BOOK I
I / II / III / IV / V / VI / VII / VIII / IX / X / XI / XII / XIII / XIV
BOOK II
XV / XVI / XVII / XVIII / XIX / XX / XXI
BOOK III
XXII / XXIII / XXIV / XXV / XXVI
Acknowledgments
About Valentino Achak-Deng
About Dave Eggers
Valentino Achak Deng founded The VAD (Valentino Achak Deng) Foundation in 2006, and leads the formulation and implementation of the organization’s programs. He is an experienced developer with a proven record of driving positive change throughout South Sudan and globally. Valentino has a BA in Education in History and Business and an MBA in Global Business Management from the United States International University. A premier member of the African diaspora, Deng advocates on issues such as access to universal education, transformational infrastructure, and entrepreneurship as key catalysts for sustainable development and economic growth. He has served in various capacities as a community social worker, peer counselor, and reproductive health motivator. He was previously a Vice President of Corporate Social Responsibility for the large-scale African energy and infrastructure project developer, Black Rhino Group.
Source: https://www.vadfoundation.com/team-1
More from Valentino Achak Deng in this library, click here.
Dave Eggers is the author of several books, including You Shall Know Our Velocity, winner of the Independent Book Award, and What Is the What, a finalist for the 2006 National Book Critics Circle Award and winner of France’s Prix Medici. That book, about Valentino Achak Deng, a survivor of the civil war in South Sudan, gave birth to the Valentino Achak Deng Foundation, run by Deng and dedicated to offering quality education opportunities in South Sudan. Eggers is the founder and editor of McSweeney’s, an independent publishing house based in San Francisco that produces books, an eponymous quarterly journal, and a monthly magazine (The Believer). In 2002, with Nínive Calegari, he co-founded 826 Valencia, a nonprofit writing and tutoring center for youth in the Mission District of San Francisco. Local communities have since opened sister 826 centers in Chicago, Los Angeles, Brooklyn, Ann Arbor, Washington, D.C., Seattle, and Boston.
Source: https://www.vadfoundation.com/team-1
More from Dave Eggers in this library, click here.