- Hardcover: 342 pages
- Publisher: McSweeney's; First Edition edition (July 9 2009)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 1934781630
- ISBN-13: 978-1934781630
- Product Dimensions: 23.4 x 16 x 3.3 cm
- Shipping Weight: 567 g
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
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Amazon Bestsellers Rank:
#79,969 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #6 in Books > Science > Earth Sciences > Atmospheric Sciences > Hurricanes
- #13 in Books > Science > Earth Sciences > Natural Disasters
- #13 in Books > Outdoors & Nature > Environment > Natural Disasters
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Product Details |
Product Description
Review
FINALIST – The Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Current Interest
"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."
— The New York Times Book Review
"Zeitoun is impeccably structured and bursting with empathy, but Eggers's real success is in how thoroughly he camouflages his own authorial voice. He writes in poignant, straight-ahead prose that never clutters or dresses up the subject matter. The resulting book is so evocative and user-friendly that it will appeal to readers of virtually all ages."
— The Georgia Straight
"A heartfelt book, so fierce in its fury, so beautiful in its richly nuanced, compassionate telling of an American tragedy, and finally, so sweetly, stubbornly hopeful."
— The Times-Picayune
“Gripping and moving.”
— San Francisco Chronicle
“I deeply admired the talent, ambition and courage it must have taken to write Zeitoun. . . . His writing is spare and precise, with respect for both the reader and the story, and underlying the narrative [is] a wonderful sense of outrage made all the more powerful because of how light his touch is.”
— Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, author of The Thing Around Your Neck
“Eggers . . . sensibly resists rhetorical grandstanding, letting injustices speak for themselves. His skill is most evident in how closely he involves the reader in Zeitoun’s thoughts.”
— The New Yorker
“The book serves as a damning indictment of governmental and judicial failings in the wake of Katrina—but beyond that, it recounts a wrenching, human story of family, faith and, ultimately, hope. Dave Eggers is an important writer with a big heart, as conscientious as he is prolific. Whatever he does next, and however he does it, his work matters, and people should be listening.”
— The Globe and Mail
“Brings the city in its immediate post-storm aftermath vividly to life. . . . No matter how much you’ve read and heard about what went on in New Orleans in the days and weeks following Katrina, much of what happens to Zeitoun will probably be new and shocking to you. . . . This book is a modern-day American epic that brings the complexity and ennobling dimensions of the best fiction to a real-life story that needed to be told.”
— The Gazette --This text refers to the Paperback edition.
"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."
— The New York Times Book Review
"Zeitoun is impeccably structured and bursting with empathy, but Eggers's real success is in how thoroughly he camouflages his own authorial voice. He writes in poignant, straight-ahead prose that never clutters or dresses up the subject matter. The resulting book is so evocative and user-friendly that it will appeal to readers of virtually all ages."
— The Georgia Straight
"A heartfelt book, so fierce in its fury, so beautiful in its richly nuanced, compassionate telling of an American tragedy, and finally, so sweetly, stubbornly hopeful."
— The Times-Picayune
“Gripping and moving.”
— San Francisco Chronicle
“I deeply admired the talent, ambition and courage it must have taken to write Zeitoun. . . . His writing is spare and precise, with respect for both the reader and the story, and underlying the narrative [is] a wonderful sense of outrage made all the more powerful because of how light his touch is.”
— Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, author of The Thing Around Your Neck
“Eggers . . . sensibly resists rhetorical grandstanding, letting injustices speak for themselves. His skill is most evident in how closely he involves the reader in Zeitoun’s thoughts.”
— The New Yorker
“The book serves as a damning indictment of governmental and judicial failings in the wake of Katrina—but beyond that, it recounts a wrenching, human story of family, faith and, ultimately, hope. Dave Eggers is an important writer with a big heart, as conscientious as he is prolific. Whatever he does next, and however he does it, his work matters, and people should be listening.”
— The Globe and Mail
“Brings the city in its immediate post-storm aftermath vividly to life. . . . No matter how much you’ve read and heard about what went on in New Orleans in the days and weeks following Katrina, much of what happens to Zeitoun will probably be new and shocking to you. . . . This book is a modern-day American epic that brings the complexity and ennobling dimensions of the best fiction to a real-life story that needed to be told.”
— The Gazette --This text refers to the Paperback edition.
Book Description
In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, longtime New Orleans residents Abdulrahman and Kathy Zeitoun are cast into unthinkable struggle with forces beyond wind and water. Good Samaritan Abdulrahman has stayed on in the city, traversing its deeply flooded streets by canoe, feeding trapped dogs and rescuing survivors, as New Orleans becomes a disaster zone. But nothing could prepare him for the wholly unexpected nightmare that follows...
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Most helpful customer reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Mesmerizing,
By
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Zeitoun (Hardcover)
This is a fantastic book, my best of read in some time, bar none. It's compelling both in its story and in the telling. Mr. Eggers obviously spent many long hours interviewing the main characters of this story, Abdulrahman Zeitoun and his wife Kathy and he provides a deep insight into their characters. Not the biographies of Jon Krakauer, we begin with a mystery. A man is imprisoned without the usual rights associated with habeas corpus we would normally associate with the United States and any country that pretends to be civilized for basically trying to be a good citizen and do what he believed God intended for him. Like the prisons in Guantanamo Bay, he is caged in what was a Greyhound parking lot and then transported to an overcrowded prison where he discovers his charge and is unable to contact his wife who he knows must believe he is dead. How can this happen? We learn about his home in Syria, his journey through the high seas and finally his reasons for settling in his current home of New Orleans. Then, we are given details about his dedication to his work and family and his reasons for staying in the cursed city despite the desperate pleading from his wife and brother. How could such atrocities happen to such a man? We are given no answer however we are given insight into one of the tremendous individuals that America have now been blessed its soil and the crazy suspicions that continue to plague them.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Man Made Tragedy,
By
This review is from: Zeitoun (Hardcover)
In my opinion, "Zeitoun" is possibly the best non-fiction book I've read this year. Dave Eggers, a modern day Dickens according to the New York Times' Timothy Egan, is a journalistic wizard weaving through the background of Abdulrahman Zeitoun -- a Syrian immigrant -- his family and life in New Orleans, and his adventures during the unfortunate events of Hurricane Katrina.The first half of the book admittedly is slightly dull, but the second half is both thrilling but profoundly tragic at the same time. I don't want to give up the plot but it will have you questioning the fragility of the constitutional rights (as Americans that is) and what it means to be an American. Unfortunately, there are probably many more Zeitoun stories yet to be told, each one as sad as the one before. As a cathartic process, I believe these stories all need to be told, if only so that somehow in the future, we can avoid repeating such terrible mistakes. When will we ever learn??
5.0 out of 5 stars
A modern-day hero,
By
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Zeitoun (Paperback)
The best book I've read all year. Zeitoun is a harrowing personal tale of what it means to be good when faced with bad. Our hero (an understatement), Zeitoun, is a Syrian-born naturalized American who lived in New Orleans during Katrina. While his family bolts to Baton Rogue and later, Phoenix, he stays in the city to watch over his home and other rental properties. He ends up saving lives (human and animals) and is rewarded by being wrongfully arrested and sent to a maximum-security prison. Through Zeitoun's story, FEMA's bureaucratic ineptitude is realized as well as the abundant character flaws within general America.
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