It’s a near perfect Sunday morning. I’m enjoying a cappuccino with a lovely little heart in the foam, a muffin, and the NY Times. What more could I ask for? All is right with the world, until of course, I open the newspaper.
There they are, the The Lost Boys of Sudan, back in the news. Honestly, I hadn’t given them much thought lately.
A few years ago, their story kept me up at night while I read Dave Eggers novel, What is the What.
These boys, as young as five, walked thousands of miles to refugee camps in Ethopia. They walked in the heat, the darkness of night, eating only grass, dodging bullets and tigers. Of an estimated 30,000 boys, only 10,000 survived the journey. Most were never reunited with their families.
The original Lost Boys fled Sudan during the civil war of the 1990′s. The war really never ended, despite a “peace agreement.” Now there is a new wave of Lost Boys.
Eggers novel is based on the real life journey of Valentino Achak Deng, who made it from Sudan to Ethopia, and finally the United States.
It is a stirring and intimate account of the children who grew up during the civil war, the atrocities they experienced in Sudan, and the unexpected difficulties of life in America.
I highly recommend it.
If you don’t want to take my word, here is another review.
Let me know what you think.
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
My husband worked at Save Darfur years ago. Which is how I got to breastfeed with George Clooney. But I digress. As a new mom I simply couldn’t listen to the stories he came home with about The Sudan. They were just too awful.
You never cease to amaze me.