here & now

Today marks the birth of a new country: South Sudan which, after decades of civil war and atrocities that are hard to imagine, is finally becoming independent. Normally, this wouldn’t have meant all that much to me, but now it does, having recently finished Dave Eggers‘ What is the What, a fictionalized autobiography of Valentino Achak Deng, one of the Lost Boys that were misplaced in the turmoil of civil war in Sudan. It’s a touching and thought-provoking book, by the way, and makes you feel attached to a country and a people you have never personally met. And it’s amazing to me that a book can do that.