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Each year, in May, our community chooses a Book of the Year that is read by students, faculty, and staff and inspires various curricular and co-curricular learning opportunities. The 2010-2011 Book of the year is What Is the What by David Eggers, praised as “nothing short of genius” by the New York Times (October 2006).

The following excerpt from David Amsden’s review in the New York Times will give you some idea about the richness of the book:

“What Is the What tells the story of a refugee from the second Sudanese civil war (1983–2005), one of the 20,000 so-called Lost Boys who walked thousands of miles from their decimated villages (their homes burned by Arab militiamen, most of the adults slaughtered) to relative safety in Ethiopia and later Kenya. In a region with no shortage of unimaginable horrors—the ongoing genocide in Darfur has taken some 300,000 lives with no signs of abating—the particulars of the Lost Boys have long stood out as a crushing reminder of the primitive cruelty of African warfare. Few were older than 10 when they were displaced, and many died during their journey, some of starvation and dehydration, others at the mercy of lions and armed forces. It is a tragedy related by the extraordinarily clear-eyed Valentino Achak Deng, one of 4,000 refugees offered sanctuary in the U.S. in 2001, who is reflecting back while trying to survive an altogether different struggle: assimilation into a culture defined by its short-term memory and chronic indifference to the world beyond its borders.

“Billed as a novel, What Is the What is more a work of imaginary journalism: Valentino is an actual refugee, whom Eggers spent years interviewing. “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.”

Along with the topic, “The Challenge of Borders,” that the BOTY committee had chosen for 2010-2011, Eggers’s book will allow us to focus our programming on trauma – not only in the context of civil wars and lost children in Africa but also in the global and domestic contexts of dislocation and violence. What Is the What will complement The Chicago School’s Rwanda Initiative and the emerging interest among our students in International Psychology. Incoming students will receive free copies of the book at orientation.

Four other books were considered as semi-finalists in the process of choosing the new Book of the Year: The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini, The Art of Choosing by Sheena Iyengar, Picking Cotton by J. Thompson-Cannino, R. Cotton, and E. Torneo, and The Meaning of Matthew by Judy Shephard. The process was rewarding, although the choice of only one book out of 18 nominated titles was difficult. In keeping with the high standards of TCSPP, the Book of the Year reading committee chose a challenging work that will add to our pursuit of goals and values such as education, diversity, and community.

The BOTY programming committee is looking for volunteers (students, faculty, and staff) from all locations of TCSPP to join us in the process of planning and coordinating events inspired by What Is the What by Dave Eggers.

Check Valentino Achak Deng's foundation and consider volunteering.

Questions? Suggestions? Please write to Katia Mitova, chair of the Book of the Year committee.