David Eggers has returned to the theme of innocence cut short in his new novel. Like A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius - which recounts how his parents both died of cancer when he was 21, leaving him to raise his eight-year brother – his new book tells the story of one of the "lost boys" of Sudan, who fled the country's two-decade long civil war for a new life in America.
Eggers encountered the "lost boys" after the daughter of Jane Fonda, Mary Williams, wrote to him about a charitable project she runs in Atlanta to help them adjust to their new lives in America. She wanted him to assist one of the refugees, Dominic Arou, write his memoirs. The pair got on, and even took an aid flight into war-torn southern Sudan to track down Arou's family. Eggers' as yet unfinished novel is the result.
For a man writing about such a harrowing subject, Eggers was a charming and frequently hilarious speaker at the Hay festival, particularly when he read from his essay on the vice presidency of Dick Cheney ("the most creepy and overtly comically evil-like person"). He was shy, however, to admit to any grand motives in writing about Sudan, revealing only that he hopes to give the issue greater exposure.
