More than 40 San Quentin prisoners were afforded the opportunity to hear the acclaimed New York Times best- selling author Dave Eggers, review one of his novels.
Eggers’s introduction by prisoner Teiiamu straightened backs and let the San Quentin audience, including staff from Patten University, know that they were privileged to hear something rare in today’s times, uncut truth and reality.
Eggers’s 2007 novel, What is the What, was read by many of the prisoners who came to listen to this humble man give an account of the plight of the Dinka people in war-torn Sudan, which inspired him to write the book. The book is an epic account of one of the Lost Boys of Sudan, Valentino Achak Deng as his heart-felt voyage from Marial Bai, a small village in Southern Sudan, to a refugee camp in Kenya.
Eggers’s biographical narrative took him over four years to complete. “The book is bigger than me,” said Eggers.
It is not difficult to understand this sentiment, as he explains that the proceeds of the novel go to helping the children of East African strife.
“Each book sold represents three bricks for Valentino’s non-profit organization dedicated to assisting poor Africans throughout the region,” said Eggers.
Educated at the University of Illinois, Chicago, Eggers is a talented writer. He took the oral history of Valentino and developed a spirited, witty, emotional, epic story of real life events that give the reader deep empathy for Valentino enduring his 800 mile quest across East Africa.
The New York Times Book Review wrote, “Eggers’s generous spirit and seemingly inexhaustible energy…transform Valentino and the people he met on his journey into characters in a book with the imaginative sweep, the scope and, above all, the emotional power of an epic…Eggers has made the outlines of the tragedy in East Africa—so vague to so many Americans—not only sharp and clear but indelible. An eloquent testimony to the power of storytelling.”
