What Is the What: The Autobiography of Valentino Achak Deng

Dave Eggers

ISBN 10: 1439560617 ISBN 13: 9781439560617

Publisher: Paw Prints

Synopsis

What is the What is Dave Eggers's astonishing novel about one of the world's most brutal civil wars

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.

'If there was ever any doubt that Dave Eggers is one of our most important storytellers, What Is the What should put it to rest... [A] strange, beautiful and unforgettable work' San Francisco Chronicle

'A remarkable book: harrowing, witty, wretched, delightful; and always compelling, always surprising' London Review of Books

All of the author's proceeds from this book will go to the Valentino Achak Deng Foundation. Read more at: www.valentinoachakdeng.com.

About this title

Review:

'A stirring tale, told with admirable simplicity by a classy writer'.

About the Author:

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, Your Fathers, Where Are They? And the Prophets, Do They Live Forever? and Heroes of the Frontier. A Hologram for the King and The Circle have both been adapted into major feature films. His next book, The Monk of Mokha, will be published by Hamish Hamilton in 2018.

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.

About this edition

• Publisher: Paw Prints
• ISBN 10: 1439560617
• ISBN 13: 9781439560617
• Binding: Library Binding