What is the What

When I was in Kampala a few weeks ago, I picked up a copy of What is the What, Dave Egger’s autobiography of Valentino Achak Deng - one of the thousands of Sudanese refugees (one of the so-called “Lost Boys of Sudan”) who was relocated to America. I just finished reading it and now want to try to make sure that everybody I know also reads it :-D

Why? To begin with, because it’s beautifully written and one of the most compelling books I’ve ever read. But more importantly, because it speaks honestly about a part of the world that few care about and about events that few know much about. Because it gives voice to the suffering of the silent – of those who have been silenced, of those who have no one to speak for them, of those who have no one to speak to, of those whose lives and deaths should not be so easily ignored.

On a final more personal note, if you’ve ever wondered what the refugee camps here are like, this book describes them infinitely better and more vividly than I could ever hope to. Different country, different conflict, different people, but fundamentally similar situations – suffering, after all, doesn’t discriminate … and neither does hope.

Please, please read this book.