What Is the What

In this heartrending and beautifully-observed novel, Dave Eggers illuminates the history of the Sudanese civil war through the eyes of Valentino Achak Deng, a refugee now living in the US. Driven from his home as a boy, Deng walks with thousands of other orphans to Ethiopia, where he finds safety - for a time. Valentino's travels, truly Biblical in scope, bring him in contact with government soldiers, ganjaweed-like militias, liberation rebels, hyenas and lions, aid workers, disease and starvation. His story is an eye-opening account of life amid the madness of war, told with expansive humanity and unexpected humour.