“An absolute classic…Compelling, important and vital to the understanding of the politics and emotional consequences of oppression.”
– Jonathan Durbin, People
What is the What is the story of Valentino Achak Deng, a refugee of the Sudanese civil war. Fleeing from his village in the mid-1980s, Deng becomes one of the so-called Lost Boys - children pursued by militias, government soldiers, lions and hyenas and a myriad of diseases in their search for sanctuary, first in Ethiopia and then in Kenya. Eventually, Deng is resettled in the United States with almost four thousand other young Sudanese men, and a very different struggle begins.
*National Book Critics Circle Award Finalist*
“Hands down, What is the What stands as the single most thought-provoking, unusual, and moving book I have read all year.”
- USA Today
“What is the What does what a novel does best, which is to make us understand the deeper truths of another human being’s experience.”
- Booklist
“An eloquent testimony to the power of storytelling. An extraordinary work of witness, and of art.”
- New York Times Book Review
“A work of such simple power, straightforward emotion and genuine gravitas.”
- Washington Post
In Valentino’s Words
What Is the What is the soulful account of my life: from the time I was separated from my family in Marial Bai to the thirteen years I spent in Ethiopian and Kenyan refugee camps, to my encounter with vibrant Western cultures beginning in Atlanta, to the generosity and the challenges that I encountered elsewhere.
This book began as part of my struggle to reach out to others through public speaking. I told my story to many audiences, but I wanted the world to know the whole truth of my existence. In the fall of 2003, I asked Mary Williams, the founder of the Lost Boys Foundation in Atlanta, to put me in touch with an author to help me write my biography. Mary contacted Dave Eggers and thank God Dave and I met and certainly became good friends. We agreed that all proceeds from the book would be used to improve the lives of Sudanese in Sudan and elsewhere.
Over the course of many years, Dave and I have collaborated to tell my story by way of tape recording, by electronic mailings, by telephone conversations and by many personal meetings and visitations. We even went to Sudan together in December 2003, and I was able to revisit the town I left when I was seven years old. I told Dave what I knew and what I could remember, and from that material, he created this work of art..
My desire to have this book written was born out of my faith and beliefs in humanity; I wanted to reach out to others to help them understand Sudan’s place in our global community. I am relieved that Dave and I have accomplished this task through the illumination of my life as an example of atrocities many successive governments of Sudan committed against its people. Although the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement allowed southern Sudan to rebuild itself—and the chance to secede in 2011 via popular referendum—gross human rights violations continues today in the Darfur region of the country.
I am blessed to have lived to inform you that even when my hours were darkest, I believed that someday I could share my experiences with others. This book is a form of struggle, and it keeps my spirit alive to struggle. To struggle is to strengthen my faith, my hope and my belief in humanity. Since you and I exist, together we can make a difference! Thank you for reading What Is the What and I wish you a blessed day.
VALENTINO ACHAK DENG