What is the What? (Dave Eggers)

What is the What? is a sad, sad, story. How could it not be? It's the story of Valentino Achak Deng, a "Lost Boy" from war-ravaged Sudan. Albeit it's not pure autobiography, the disclaimer by Deng says that much of the story is true. Eggers tells Deng's story through a series of flashbacks, flashbacks during and shortly after a violent robbery of Deng's apartment in Atlanta, Georgia, ironically his sanctuary after years of suffering, starvation, and deprivation running from one group or another in his native Sudan, Ethiopia, and Kenya.All proceeds from the sale of the book go to t he Valentino Achak Deng Foundation: http://www.valentinoachakdeng.org/. For me, the story brought to life the reality of the suffering of what remains ongoing in Sudan--now in Darfur, Sudan. It makes a news headline or a story more than just a place far-far away. It's a person like you or I, suffering in fear, starvation, without family or love, and without shelter. What the book leaves you with is to answer the question of what exactly is the what that will make a deranged world sit right.