It is based on the life of Valentino Achak Deng, a Sudanese child refugee who immigrated to the United States under the Lost Boys of Sudan program.

Achak seeks shelter in his aunt's house with his mother, who is frequently identified throughout the book with a yellow dress.

He evades detection by hiding in a bag of grain and credits God for helping him stay quiet.

After Ethiopian president Mengistu is overthrown and soldiers open fire on them, they flee to another refugee camp in Kakuma, Kenya.

By classifying the book a novel, Eggers says, he freed himself to re-create conversations, streamline complex relationships, add relevant detail and manipulate time and space in helpful ways—all while maintaining the essential truthfulness of the storytelling.

Questions of "expropriation of another man's identity" were addressed by Valentino Achak Deng and Dave Eggers in a discussion about the division between the speaker and the spoken for.

Dave Eggers discusses the difficulties in writing a book of this nature: "For a long while there, we continued doing interviews, and I gathered the material.

"[3]In 2007 Ohio State University selected the novel as one of two choices for the freshmen book club and distributed thousands of copies to incoming students.