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Zeitoun
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Zeitoun (2009) (edit title/settings)

by Dave Eggers (Author) (edit contributors)

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Description edit see section history

Dave Eggers, the award winning author of "What Is the What?", wrote this true account of lives altered after Hurricane Katrina. "Zeitoun" was written in close collaboration with its subjects and involved vast research — in this case, in the United States, Spain, and Syria.

Summary edit see section history

When Hurricane Katrina 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 days after the storm, he traveled the flooded streets in a secondhand canoe, passing on... read more (warning: may contain spoilers)

When Hurricane Katrina 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 days after the storm, he traveled the flooded streets in a secondhand canoe, passing on supplies and helping those he could. A week later, on September 6, 2005, Zeitoun abruptly disappeared. Eggers’s riveting nonfiction book, three years in the making, explores Zeitoun’s roots in Syria, his marriage to Kathy — an American who converted to Islam — and their children, and the surreal atmosphere (in New Orleans and the United States generally) in which what happened to Abdulrahman Zeitoun was possible

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Quotes edit see section history

  • “Yes, a dark time passed over this land, but now there is something like light.”
  • “Then he got more books. He saved all the books.”
  • “The captain was taken with the beauty of the metaphor, and let his silence imply surrender.”
  • “It could have been avoided, she thinks. So many little things could have been done. So many people let it happen. So many looked away. And it only takes one person, one small act of stepping from the dark to the light.”
  • Popular Highlights from Kindle Customers
  • This complex and exceedingly efficient government operation was completed while residents of New Orleans were trapped in attics and begging for rescue from rooftops and highway overpasses. The portable toilets were available and working at Camp Greyhound while there were no working bathrooms at the Convention Center and Superdome a few blocks away. Hundreds of cases of water and MREs were readily available for the guards and prisoners, while those stranded nearby were fighting for food and water.
    Highlighted by 308 Kindle customers
  • This country was not unique. This country was fallible. Mistakes were being made. He was a mistake. In the grand scheme of the country’s blind, grasping fight against threats seen and unseen, there would be mistakes made. Innocents would be suspected. Innocents would be imprisoned.
    Highlighted by 281 Kindle customers
  • “If your hand doesn’t work for it, your heart doesn’t feel sorry for it.”
    Highlighted by 266 Kindle customers
  • ‘The crazy person talks, the wise person listens.’”
    Highlighted by 258 Kindle customers
  • “Without someone guiding us,” Zeitoun finished, “wouldn’t the stars and moon fall to earth, wouldn’t the oceans overrun the land? Any vessel, any carrier of humans, needs a captain, yes?”
    Highlighted by 254 Kindle customers
  • How hard it was to do both, to be partner to one and protector to the other. What was the balance? He would spend years pondering this conundrum.
    Highlighted by 225 Kindle customers
  • His frustration with some Americans was like that of a disappointed parent. He was so content in this country, so impressed with and loving of its opportunities, but then why, sometimes, did Americans fall short of their best selves?
    Highlighted by 222 Kindle customers
  • wasn’t it more absurd to give up? Wasn’t it more absurd to fail, to turn back, than to continue?
    Highlighted by 200 Kindle customers
  • “Everything happens for a reason,” he tells them. “You do your duty, you do what’s right, and the rest is in God’s hands.”
    Highlighted by 163 Kindle customers
  • much would be lost in the context, the waste and excess of the culture at large. He had been brought up to know that what God hates as much as anything is waste. It was, he had been told, one of the three things God most hated: murder, divorce, and waste. It destroyed a society.
    Highlighted by 141 Kindle customers
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Setting & Locations edit see section history

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First Sentence edit see section history

On the moonless nights the men and boys of Jableh, a dusty fishing town on the coast of Syria, would gather their lanterns and set out in their quietest boats.

Table of Contents edit see section history

This book is divided into five parts.
Chapter titles track the days from Friday, August 26, 2005 through Thursday, September 29th 2005. Part V takes place in the Fall of 2008.

Glossary edit see section history

  • jumu'ah: Friday ritual gathering of Muslim men
  • wuduu: ritual cleansing required of worshipers
  • hijab: Muslim woman's hair covering
  • abaya: shoulder to floor Islamic woman's dress

Series & Lists edit see section history

This is book 200909 of 31 in The Bibliophile Club - Monthly Selected Reads. (community list)
This is book 3 of 5 in The Bibliophile Club -Selected Reads of 2009. (community list)
This book is in Amazon Book Club Picks. (authoritative list)
This book is in Rainy Day Books (12 Best Books of 2009). (community list)

Authors & Contributors edit see section history

  1. Dave Eggers (Author)

Other Contributors:

  1. Maaike Bijnsdorp (Translator)
  2. Lucie Schaap (Translator)

First Edition edit see section history

Original Language: English
Publisher: McSweeney's Books
Country: USA
Publication Date: 2009
ISBN: 1934781630
Page Count: 342

Classification edit see section history

  • Library of Congress: E184.A65 E34 2009
  • Dewey: 305.8927076335

Notes for Parents edit see section history

Reading Level: Adults

This would be a good read for older children with a social conscience. It explores the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, racism after 9/11, and how the government can exceed its powers in moments of strife.

Links to Supplemental Material edit see section history

  • Zeitoun Foundation: Foundation created to aid in the rebuilding of New Orleans, as well as support Human Rights. Funds from the sale of "Zeitoun" go to this foundation.
  • Voice of Witness: Nonprofit book series founded by Dave Eggers.
  • The Valentino Achak Deng Foundation: Established by Valentino Deng and Dave Eggers after the publication of What Is the What.

More Books Like This edit see section history

   
  • What is the What
  • Disaster

Books with Additional Background Information edit see section history

   
  • Breach of Faith
  • The Great Deluge
  • Disaster
  • Come Hell or High Water
  • Not Just the Levees Broke: My Story During and After Hurricane Katrina
  • Lost in Katrina
  • Holding Out and Hanging on: Surviving Hurricane Katrina

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