What Is The What

What Is the What is a 2006 novel by Dave Eggers. The story follows Valentino Achak Deng, one of tens of thousands of boys displaced and/or orphaned during the Second Sudanese War, which spanned nearly two decades, from 1987 to 2005. While a novel, What Is the What has been called by Eggers a “fictionalized autobiography.” As Deng explains in his introduction to the text, they decided that it should be considered a novel, because many of the events occurred when he was too young to have sharp and vivid memories of the conversations; however, it is important to know that all the major events in the book are true.

Deng’s story begins in his village of Marial Bai, a place where his father runs a business that trades with both the Dinka and the Arabic population of Sudan. When the war begins, the Arabs attack Marial Bai, burning it down and killing countless people. Deng makes his escape from his village, and at 7 years old finds himself marching hundreds of miles without a guardian. He sees boys like himself die every day, from wild animal attacks, starvation, and gunfire. Deng wonders all the time whether his family might still be alive, but there is nowhere to go but forward, into hostile territory where nobody seems to have room for to be able to help the boys.

As Deng looks back on his life and explains the difficulties he faced as one of the Lost Boys of Sudan, he also confronts obstacles to his health and happiness in the modern-day United States, being robbed and assaulted by home invaders, trying to obtain medical care, helping other Sudanese refugees find solace, and searching for romance and security for himself. Every step of his journey is fraught with peril, with even the events of 9/11 coinciding with his attempts to reach America.

After travelling from southern Sudan to Ethiopia, then to refugee camps in Kenya, and, finally, to Atlanta, Deng has experienced a lifetime of tragedy and hardship. In the end, he decides that his story is too important to be forgotten or ignored. He meets many friends along the way: his childhood friends, Moses and William K; his future roommate, Achor Achor; the love of his life, Tabitha; and Mary Williams, who starts a foundation to help the Lost Boys. Many of his friends die; through Deng, their stories are told in this memoir taking the form of a novel.