Zeitoun

By: Dave Eggers

Narrated by: Firdous Bamji

In his new nonfiction book Zeitoun, New York Times best-selling author Dave Eggers tells a Hurricane Katrina story unlike any written before.

When HurricaneKatrina struck New Orleans, Abdulrahman Zeitoun - a prosperous Syrian-American and father of four - chose to stay through the storm to protect his house and contracting business. In the eerie days after the storm, he traveled the flooded streets in a secondhand canoe, passing on supplies and rescuing those he could. A week later, on September 6, 2005, Zeitoun abruptly disappeared.

Eggers's riveting work, three years in the making, follows Zeitoun back to his childhood in Syria and around the world during his years as a sailor. The book also traces the story of Zeitoun's wife Kathy - a boisterous Southerner who converted to Islam - and their wonderful, funny, devoted family. When Zeitoun vanishes, Kathy is left to make sense of the surreal atmosphere (in New Orleans and the United States generally) in which what happened to Abdulrahman Zeitoun was possible.

©2009 Dave Eggers (P)2009 Recorded Books, LLC

Critic reviews

"Imagine Charles Dickens, his sentimentality in check but his journalistic eyes wide open, roaming New Orleans after it was buried by Hurricane Katrina ... Eggers's tone is pitch-perfect - suspense blended with just enough information to stoke reader outrage and what is likely to be a typical response: How could this happen in America?" (Timothy Egan, The New York Times)

Superb

Eye-opening, exciting, scary, lovely, engrossing. Dave Eggers ("What is the What?") is a phenomenon. Bamji's narration is also super. He has a very slight accent that gives color to his reading without obscuring it.

Powerful, yet heartbreaking story

This is by far one of the most amazing books I’ve read in a very long time. It was given to me by my daughter who had to read for a college class, and she loved it just as much. I smiled, I cried, and at times I got angry. Will recommend it to everyone I know.

really good book. happy this was a required readin

hey... that's pretty good. loved it. amazing that this is all true. amazing book yall

New Orleans after hurricane Katrina

a unique perspective of the hurricane Katrina aftermath. not a story I could relate to very well.

terrific book about a stunning failure

Difficult to believe what happened here could actually happen in America. Nonetheless, Eggers tells a very descriptive story about how one man got caught in a vortex of bureaucratic incompetence in the weeks after Katrina.