Dave Eggers's What Is the What shows he has recovered from irony overload to tell a truly heartbreaking tale of a young man's journey from Africa to America, says Tim Adams. All the proceeds from the book will go to a foundation set up in Achak's name which, as well as paying for his college education, will rebuild his old village in Sudan. So, a worthwhile venture, and, as an emotional primer about the impacted recent history of the Sudan, about the fighting between north and south, government and rebels, Arabs and Dinka, murahaleen and SPLA, Eggers's ventriloquism could hardly be bettered. He makes Achak's an authentic and affecting voice of the grimmest narrative of our times, and it is, you might say, a nicely reciprocal arrangement.
Eggers is famous for his book, A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius. That title could easily apply to What Is the What. Book Discussion Group Questions. If you've chosen this book for your discussion group, here are some sample questions. Did you know the plight of the Lost Boys before you read this book? Did it change what you thought about the situation? What details impacted you the most? Continue Reading. Biography of Dave Eggers: Author, Publisher and Activist.
Synopsis: What Is the What: The Autobiography of Valentino Achak Deng is a 2006 novel written by Dave Eggers. It is based on the real life story of Valentino Achak Deng, a Sudanese refugee and member of the Lost Boys of Sudan program. As a boy, Deng is separated from his family during the Second Sudanese Civil War when the Arab militia, referred to as murahaleen (which is Arabic for traveller), wipes out his Dinka village. As you read this book, you will learn about the two and a half million people who have perished in Sudan’s civil war. I was just a boy when the war began.
This is an unusual book because it’s presented as a novel by Dave Eggers, yet it’s really an autobiography of Valentino Achak Deng. First, they wanted it to be in Valentino’s voice, but his English wasn’t strong enough to write the story. Second, because he was very young when most of the events of the book happened, it wasn’t realistic to think his story could be considered strictly factual.
Dave Eggers’s What Is the What is, like Huckleberry Finn, a picaresque novel of adolescence. It’s a real high-wire act, yet Eggers manages to maintain this level of intensity throughout the book as Achak and the other Lost Boys encounter minefields and massacres, loneliness and fear, starvation, disease, predatory wild animals, the seemingly endless varieties of cruelty, the sustenance of fellowship and the surprising manifestations of instinctive human kindness.
Dave Eggers - What is the What: The Autobiography of Valentino Achak Deng (2006). I was just a boy when the war began
What Is the What: The Autobiography of Valentino Achak Deng is a 2006 novel written by Dave Eggers. It is based on the life of Valentino Achak Deng, a Sudanese child refugee who immigrated to the United States under the Lost Boys of Sudan program. It was a finalist for the National Book Award
Where Eggers used A Heartbreaking Work as a vehicle for his philosophical musings and wit, What Is the What matter-of-factly recounts events without saccharine sentiment or flowery prose. Eggers even avoids much embellishment, according to the real-life Valentino, who introduces the story: We live in a time when even the most horrific events in this book could occur, he acknowledges, and in most cases did occur. Evil so widespread and casual is difficult to grasp. It makes the book read as much like Tolkien as non-fiction, but, amazingly, through one refugee’s voice, we also see hope
Author : Dave Eggers. Date of Publication: 2006. PDF, EPUB File Name: What Is the What. epub, What Is the What. pdf, What Is the What. What Is the What pdf epub mobi Download by Dave Eggers Here is a quick description of the book What Is the What written by Dave Eggers which was published in 2006. You can read this before What Is the What PDF EPUB MOBI full Download at the bottom. From the bestselling author of A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, What Is the What is the epic novel based on the life of Valentino Achak Deng who, along with thousands of other children -the so-called Lost Boys-was forced to leave his village in Sudan at the age of seven and trek hundreds of miles by foot, pursued by militias, government.