What is the What - Dave Eggers

FINISHED READING: What is the What - Dave Eggers

What is the What is written as an autobiography of Valentino Achak Deng, but authored by the American writer, Dave Eggers.

I picked it up and added it to my book list based on Rob Thomas' recommendation and the song Fire on the Mountain (by Rob Thomas). My thoughts at the time were if a book inspires someone to act (write a song, help a charity, etc...) it should be read.

Summary
Combining fictional and non fictional, Dave Eggers recounts the story of Valentino's journey from Southern Sudan to Atlanta, Georgia. The journey that Valentino takes is mental, physical and grueling. Through it he overcomes all odds but during it faces, death, starvation, disease, cruelty as Sudan faces war all around him. And, just when he gets to refugee camps both in Ethiopia and Kenya and believes some comfort might exist, he quickly realizes comfort doesn't exist in war. It also doesn't truly exist in the states, as he learns when Valentino he answers the door to a woman needing to use the phone and finds himself in the middle of a brutal robbery.