What Is the What is a powerful, genre-blurring novel by Dave Eggers, published in 2006. While it’s written by Eggers, it is the autobiography of Valentino Achak Deng, a real-life Sudanese refugee. Eggers calls it a "novel" because he uses fictionalized dialogue and reimagined scenes to fill in the gaps of Valentino’s memory, but the core events are harrowing and true. And as a reader, sometimes the narrative can become too intense, that I was sometimes torn between taking a pause or powering further as I wanted to know what happened next.
The narrative follows Valentino through two distinct timelines: one timeline is located in the past, in Sudan and Ethiopia. The other one is in the present, in Atlanta, Georgia.
The story begins in the late 1980s during the Second Sudanese Civil War. When his village is destroyed by the muraheleen (government-backed militias), Valentino becomes one of the "Lost Boys of Sudan." He travels hundreds of miles on foot across sub-Saharan Africa, facing starvation, lion attacks, and bombing raids, eventually landing in refugee camps in Ethiopia and Kenya. And at the same time, in a stark contrast, the "present-day" timeline follows Valentino’s life as a resettled refugee in America. It begins with him being robbed and held captive in his own apartment, highlighting that even after surviving a war zone, the "promised land" presents its own set of dangers, isolation, and systemic indifference.
I actually liked this multiple timeline structure, but I do think that even if the present-day timeline didn't exist, I still would be absolutely fascinated by this book. It is a very captivating narrative of the events that happened in the Sudan, and while I was familiar with this event from an encyclopedic perspective, I didn't really have the details of the events that were happening on the ground. So this book was absolutely something that I enjoyed reading. The present-day timeline can be slightly irritating, as I didn't quite like how Valentino would jump and just "tell his story" on the next present-day person that happened to be available, but I was willing to ignore this minor irritant.
I learned that this book was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and was instrumental in raising global awareness about the Sudanese conflict. More importantly, all of the author’s proceeds from the book were used to establish the Valentino Achak Deng Foundation, which funds education projects in South Sudan. Given the historical situation, I thought that this was rather quite appropriate.
Overall, I enjoyed this book, and definitely would recommend it to anyone wanting to read such a strong and powerful book. I give it 5 out of 5 stars.
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