Dave Eggers’ 2006 novel What Is the What is one of those rare works of fiction that gives a reader the immediate satisfaction of knowing he or she is learning more about contemporary history than could be gleaned from dozens of newspaper articles and television reports. Subtitled The Autobiography of Valentino Achak Deng, Eggers’ account of Deng’s real experience as a Sudanese “lost boy” refugee to Ethiopia, Kenya, and finally the United States fleshes out not only the life story of an aspiring individual but also the local, national, and international political landscapes in which he struggles to survive.

The novel begins when Deng, in his late twenties, is taken hostage in his Atlanta apartment by two strangers unfamiliar with his incredible background. Having escaped harrowing attacks by militant groups in Sudan, conscription by rebel forces keen to enlist young boys as soldiers, and the dangers of disease, ravenous wild animals and living in overcrowded, under-funded refugee camps, Deng finds himself beaten, bound, and gagged on the floor of his apartment. 

It is a place he rents with the help of philanthropic organizations in the United States, where he had expected to find the comfort and security he longed for throughout his childhood in Africa. From this position, Deng begins to tell his story in streams of consciousness addressed to various characters with whom he would like to speak directly but, for one reason or another, cannot.

Deng narrates his mugging and the events that immediately follow it – his interminable wait for medical care and the treatment he receives at a local hospital, followed by a few hours’ work, after a sleepless night, at the reception desk of an Atlanta health club – in the present tense. These narrations are interspersed with Deng’s memories of growing up in Sudan and running away to Ethiopia and Kenya after his village, Marial Bai, is attacked by Arab militiamen with support from the Sudanese government in Khartoum. 

Deng introduces us to a host of friends he finds and loses on his way to the refugee camp in Kakuma (a town in Northwest Kenya) where he spends ten years of his life before moving to the United States. He describes the perils of his journey and his living arrangements at various stages, including the routine he follows in Kakuma, in poignant detail.

One of the book’s most impressive techniques is its handling of the complicated politics at work behind the plight of “lost boys” like Deng – unaccompanied male refugees, often unsure whether or not they are orphans and at risk of conscription as child soldiers by groups like the Sudan People’s Liberation Army. (Deng acknowledges that there are also special risks for women and girls – like forced marriage and systematic rape – and that male and female refugees share many of the same dangers, like malnutrition, disease, assault, and enslavement.)

By now, most people with access to some form of news media are aware that ethnic conflict and violence abound in Sudan, especially in the region called Darfur. But few are familiar with the international web of economic and political interests from which the atrocities have arisen. Eggers explains the history in simple, informative terms and portrays the wrongs committed by militants on all sides of the conflict.

Often, he has an older, more experienced character instruct a young Deng about one aspect or another of the issues at hand, so the explanations are clear, direct, and tailored to the ignorance of an uninformed audience. He accompanies these simplified accounts with more nuanced depictions of the exploitation of civilians like Deng and his family by the Sudanese government, its mercenary Arab gangs, and the angry rebels who attempt to avenge them.

But Deng leads a full life in which politics plays only one part, albeit a large one. In the course of the novel, he makes friends, plays sports, discovers sex, falls in love, writes plays, earns a living, and works assiduously towards the goal of a college degree. Rather than be defined merely by his struggles as a refugee, Deng carves out a rich and multi-faceted existence for himself, even before he gains access to the relative advantages of life in the United States.