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Happenings in the Keweenaw Peninsula April 2, 2007 Press release © 2007 Michigan Technological University. Photo © 2007 and courtesy The Valentino Achak Deng Foundation.

Valentino Achak Deng to speak at Rozsa Apr. 3

HOUGHTON --  Valentino Achak Deng, real-life hero of Dave Eggers’ What is the What, will present a free lecture at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Apr. 3, in the Rozsa Center for the Performing Arts on the Michigan Tech University campus.

Deng was a refugee from the Sudanese civil war of the 1980s and 90s. Through Eggers' What is the What -- hailed by the New York Times as "an extraordinary work of witness, and of art" -- Deng becomes an icon of globalization. Separated from his family when Arab militia destroy his village, Deng becomes a "Lost Boy," beset by starvation, thirst and man-eating lions on a march to squalid refugee camps in Ethiopia and Kenya. He eventually reaches America, but finds his quest for safety, community and fulfillment in many ways even more difficult here than in the camps. Deng’s story is by turns harrowing, funny, bleak and lyrical -- a horrific account of Sudanese tragedy, but also an emblematic saga of modernity, of the search for home and self in a world of unending upheaval.

Valentino Achak Deng, real-life hero of Dave Eggers’ What is the What, will speak at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Apr. 3, in the Rozsa Center on the MTU campus. (Photo © 2007 and courtesy The Valentino Achak Deng Foundation.)

"[What is the What] has managed to cross many barriers both real and artificial to tell the story of one man’s tragedy and triumph in a way that emphasizes his simple humanity above the drama of his terrible situation. It is a book that shows there is no reason why geographical and cultural divides should prevent us from attempting to understand each other as citizens of this world." -- UZODINMA IWEALA, author of Beasts of No Nation

“I cannot recall the last time I was this moved by a novel. What Is the What is that rare book that truly deserves the overused and scarcely warranted moniker of 'sprawling epic.' Told with humor, humanity, and bottomless compassion for his subject, one Valentino Achak Deng, Eggers shows us the hardships, disillusions, and hopes of the long suffering people of southern Sudan. This is the story of one boy’s astonishing capacity to endure atrocity after atrocity and yet refuse to abandon decency, kindness, and hope for home and acceptance. It is impossible to read this book and not be humbled, enlightened, transformed. I believe I will never forget Valentino Achak Deng." -- KHALED HOSSEINI, author of The Kite Runner

For more information, contact Matt Seigel at 906.487.2016 or mbseigel@mtu.edu, or contact the Rozsa Center for the Performing Arts at 906.487.3200.

The lecture is sponsored by The Michigan Tech Department of Humanities, the Visiting Women and Minority Lecturer Series, World Cultures Faculty, Pank: A Review of New Writing and Art, The Rozsa Center for the Performing Arts, and McSweeney’s.