What Is the What: The Autobiography of Valentino Achak Deng.

Eggers, Dave (author).

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In Atlanta, too-trusting Valentino Achak Deng opens his door to strangers and is beaten and robbed at gunpoint. Lying on the floor, tied up with telephone cord, he begins to silently tell his life story to one of his captors. Through the rest of his miserable ordeal, he continues these internal monologues: to the indifferent police officer who answers his call for help; to the jaded functionary at the hospital where he waits for treatment; to the affluent patrons who arrive at the health club where he must return to work. Deng is a Sudanese “Lost Boy,” and his story is one of unimaginable suffering. Forced to flee his village by the murahaleen (Muslim militias armed by the government in Khartoum), he survives marathon walks, starvation, disease, soldiers, bandits, land mines, lions, and refugee camps before winning the right to immigrate to the U.S.—a move he sees as nothing short of salvation. Deng is a real person, and this story, told in his voice, is mostly true. It can be difficult to separate the book from its circumstances: readers may weigh Eggers’ right to tell the story or wonder what parts have been changed—or even which observations are Deng’s and which are Eggers’ observations of Deng. But here a novel is the best solution to the problems of memoir. Reworking this powerful tale with both deep feeling and subtlety, Eggers finds humanity and even humor, creating something much greater than a litany of woes or a script for political outrage. 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.