What Is the What: The Autobiography of Valentino Achak Deng
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 First edition cover |
|
| Author | Dave Eggers |
|---|---|
| Cover artist | Rachell Sumpter |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Fiction |
| Publisher | McSweeney's |
| Released | October 25, 2006 |
| Media type | Print (Hardcover) |
| Pages | 475 pp |
| ISBN | ISBN 1-932416-64-1 |
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.
Contents |
[edit] Plot summary
As a boy, Deng is separated from his family when the civil war in Sudan wipes out his village. He flees on foot with a group of other young boys (the "Lost Boys"), taking him to Ethiopia, a refugee camp in Kenya and finally to the United States, encountering danger and hardship along the way.
[edit] Fact or fiction
In a preface to the novel, Deng writes: "I told my story orally to the author. He then concocted this novel, approximating my own voice and using the basic events of my life as the foundation."[1]
In this manner, the book is typical of Eggers' style: blending non-fictional and fictional elements into a nonfiction novel or memoir. By labeling the book a novel, Eggers says, he freed himself to re-create conversations, streamline complex relationships, add relevant detail and manipulate time and space in helpful ways -- all while maintaining the essential truthfulness of the storytelling.[2]
[edit] References
- ^ What Is the What: The Autobiography of Valentino Achak Deng, Preface
- ^ A Heartbreaking Work of Fiction:In a New Novel, Dave Eggers Tells Sudanese Victim's True Story, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/27/AR2006112701573.html?style=tgr
