Dave Eggers’ “What is the What” is the true story of Valentino Achak Deng, a young boy who escapes from the massacre of his home in Sudan to walk for months across the deserts of three countries to reach safety along with thousands of other children called the Lost Boys.

Facing the daily threat of militia attacks, government bombings, wild animals, disease and ever-present starvation, Achak suffers through seemingly endless conflict and struggles to maintain a sense of self, to hold onto his humanity and his will to survive even as others around him die one by one.

The deadly journey brings Achak and the other survivors first to Ethiopia, then finally to a refugee camp in Kenya. Here, Achak waits for years, not knowing his purpose or even if his family is alive, until he is brought to live in the United States.

The narration of “What is the What” switches back and forth between Achak’s present life in the United States and his youth spent fighting to survive as a refugee. This structure facilitates a particular point the novel makes, which is central to Achak’s life: that in America, he finds only a different form of starvation. Despite all that he suffered through in Africa: despite the countless deaths he witnessed and became numb to and the pain and loss he somehow managed to endure: Achak still wishes to return home.

Although in America Achak has an apartment and a car, it is not the land of opportunity he once dreamt of. Even in America he finds animosity and death. Everywhere he looks, he is met with opposition, ignorance and callousness.

Ultimately, the United States is proven to be a false sanctuary and a cultural wasteland for Achak and many others.

The main objective of the story is to tell the truth: to convey the real experiences of a real person. While it is, without a doubt, good writing, other aspects that make for a compelling novel (drama; clear beginning, middle and end; conflict, climax and resolution; and so on) tend to fall by the wayside. The novel holds honesty above literary greatness, which is entirely appropriate for its content.

The experiences of this one man bring the lives of millions to light. As Achak observes, the complexity and the brutality of the violence in Sudan permits the world t o ignore it: “The civil war became, to the world at large, too confusing to decipher, a mess of tribal conflicts with no heroes or villains.”

By focusing on the life and perspective of a single individual, rather than involving any specific political or racial agenda, the novel reminds us what is really important in times of war (and always): the people.

Achak’s story reveals the much-overlooked pain of countless people as well as their seemingly impossible task, having emerged from their trials, of finding answers: from God, from country and from each other. Brutally honest, well-written and simultaneously crushing and inspiring, “What is the What” is well worth reading.