October 1st begins our third, annual fall community reading event –
One Book, One Community: San Mateo County Reads What is the What by Dave Eggers. This is a time when we come together as one county to build community, call attention to reading and literacy, and create meaningful dialogue about books and reading.
Book Summary:
Six-year-old Achak (aka Valentino Achak Deng) is separated from his family during a raid by the muhaleen - Arab marauders on horseback who are proxies of the Islamist Sudanese government in Khartoum. A campaign is on to rid southern Sudan of Africans both for religious and financial reasons. The government wants to institute sharia law and also wants unencumbered access to the rich southern oilfields.
An odyssey for survival
Young Achak watches as his village is burned and his neighbors, friends and family are murdered or kidnapped. Unsure of whether his mother and father are alive, he runs away and begins a 13-year struggle across the deserts of Sudan and into and out of refugee camps first in Ethiopia then in Kenya.
Along the way, he meets up with other young boys (dubbed "The Lost Boys") who have escaped similar attacks on their villages. Together, they face lion attacks, land mines, starvation, disease, hostile locals, exhaustion and even more attacks by the muhaleen.
Narrative vehicle
This semi-fictionalized story is told (through the writer Dave Eggers) by the young man himself resettled in Atlanta, Georgia and facing a host of new heartbreaks and challenges in America.
While a deeply sad and horrific tale, What Is the What is at its heart the story of survival of the human spirit. "I am blessed to have lived to inform you that even when my hours were darkest, I believed that someday I could share my experiences with others," says Valentino Achak Deng on his foundation’s website.
"This book is a form of struggle, and it keeps my spirit alive...To struggle is to strengthen my faith, my hope and my belief in humanity. Since you and I exist, together we can make a difference!"
This season promises to be even more exciting than the previous two. Eggers will kick off the month-long program on October 1st at 7:30 PM by appearing with KQED’s Michael Krasny at the San Mateo Performing Arts Center. Valentino Achak Deng has traveled from Sudan where he is busy rebuilding his village in order to join Eggers for this program. This kick-off event will feature audience Q and A as well as book signings by both Eggers and Krasny.
Libraries across San Mateo County will be hosting scores of additional programs – free and open to all - designed to expand on the themes of the book. Please mark the following events on your calendar:
