Dave Eggers met Valentino Achak Deng, a Sudanese refugee finally living in Atlanta after spending almost his entire childhood fleeing the civil war. Together they decided to tell the long story of Valentino’s life as a “Lost Boy of Sudan.” Eggers soon realized that fictionalizing the story would give it a full effect.

Egger’s goal was to tell Valentino’s story and to explain both the Sudanese civil war and what the lost boys had to go through and what their experience in the U.S. has been and continues to be. Valentino’s account to Eggers was spotty becacuse he was so young when much of the book takes place. Eggers job as a writer was to fill in the blanks and ensure that the book had a deeper, wider scope. “This book is a soulful account of my life,” states Valentino in a preface, explaining that Eggers wrote the book by “approximating my own voice and using the basic events of my life as the foundation.”’

Valentino describes in riveting detail his prewar village life, his devastating journey, his refugee-camp adolescence, and his early experiences in America, which include being adopted by generous Christians, befriending a Hollywood producer, and having a troubled reunion with the woman he loved in Sudan. What Is the What is a portrait of a character that forces us to examine our world and ourselves, and how our struggle for identity is more of a collective battle than we’re often willing to admit. For all the bleak territory covered, the novel is also a reminder that remembering is both a form of sacrifice and salvation. To forget, Valentino says, “would be something less than human.”

All proceeds from the book go to aiding the Sudanese in America and Sudan. Find out more about Valentino at his website. Watch Valentino talk about the book below.