penamerican:

In honor of World Refugee Day, listen to a conversation between Dave Eggers & Valentino Achak Deng, real-life protagonist of What is the What

Conversation: Dave Eggers & Valentino Achak Deng

Valentino Achak Deng is a refugee of the Sudanese Civil War of the 1980s and ’90s. His is a common but largely invisible story of African turmoil and its ravages on the lives of children. Dave Eggers fictionalized Valentino’s story in his novel What Is the What. 


Discussed: how to become a U.S. citizen; the American short attention span; leaving home and returning on a cargo plane; and a reading from What Is the What

Source: penamerican