Zeitoun, by Dave Eggers  

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Click on the Google Books Preview to read the first four chapters.

• Additional photos from Hurricane Katrina "Telling Their Stories", Ogden Museum of Southern Art
• Hurricane Katrina: The Storm's Impact, New York Times interactive site

Hurricane Katrina, Wikimedia Commons, NOAA, public domain 

Flooding during Hurricane Katrina, Wikimedia Commons, FEMA, public domain

Eggers speaks about Zeitoun for the Muslim Public Affairs Council Foundation Media Awards. 

Photo by Elaine Chen, Rod Library

 COMMON READ @ UNI

Join the UNI Cornerstone courses and the Reaching for Higher Ground: Community after 9/11 program in reading this year's common read book, Zeitoun, by Dave Eggars.

Summary of Zeitoun from the New Yorker:

Through the story of one man’s experience after Hurricane Katrina, Eggers draws an indelible picture of Bush-era crisis management. Abdulrahman Zeitoun, a successful Syrian-born painting contractor, decides to stay in New Orleans and protect his property while his family flees. After the levees break, he uses a small canoe to rescue people, before being arrested by an armed squad and swept powerlessly into a vortex of bureaucratic brutality. When a guard accuses him of being a member of Al Qaeda, he sees that race and culture may explain his predicament. Eggers, compiling his account from interviews, 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. Thrown into one of a series of wire cages, Zeitoun speculates, with a contractor’s practicality, that construction of his prison must have begun within a day or so of the hurricane.

Dave Eggers, Wikipedia Commons, Photo by David Shankbone

Biographical Information 

• Dave Eggers Dave Eggers. (n.d.). in Contemporary authors online. Retrieved from Gale Biography in Context.
• Dave Eggers Dave Eggers. (2001) in Newsmakers online. Retrieved from Gale Biography In Context.

Interviews

• Dave Eggers interview from Progressive Siegal, N. (2007). Dave Eggers. Progressive, 71(11), 33-37. Retrived from Ebsco Academic Search Elite.
• An interview with Dave Eggers about Zeitoun Shivani, A. (Summer 2010). An interview with Dave Eggers about Zeitoun. Colorado Review: A Journal of Contemporary Literature, 37(2): 56-68. Retrieved from Gale Academic Onefile.

• A 'Staggering Genius' Talks about Writing, Fame and ... Trout: An Interview with Dave Eggers Eggers, D. (2006). A 'Staggering genius talks about writing, fame and ... trout: An interview with Dave Eggers. Writing, 27(4), 18-22. Retrieved from Ebsco Academic Search Elite.
• Dave Eggers on books, films Minzesheimer, B. (2009, November 12). Dave Eggers on books, films. USA Today. Retrived from Ebsco Academic Search Elite.  
• Gen X literary Phenom Dave Eggers Discusses his Latest Bestseller, Zeitoun  Twair, P. and Twair, S. (2009, November).  Gen X literary phenom Dave Eggers discusses his latest bestseller, Zeitoun. Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, 48-49. Retrieved from Ebsco Academic Search Elite.

The Whirlwind and the Saint Sexton, D. (2010, March 27).  The whirlwind and the saint. Spectator, 32-xx. Retreived from Gale Academic OneFile.

After the Deluge Shearer, H. (2010, March 8). After the deluge. New Statesman, 52-xx. Retrieved from Gale Academic OneFile.

Zeitoun (2009, August 31). Zeitoun. The New Yorker, 79. Retrieved from Gale Academic OneFile.

After The Deluge Egan, T.  (2009, August 16). After the deluge. The New York Times Book Review, 1L. Retrieved from Gale Academic OneFile.

'Zeitoun': Nightmare in New Orleans Donahue, D. (2009, September 22).  'Zeitoun': Nightmare in New Orleans. USA Today, 5D. Retrieved from Ebsco Academic Search Elite.

Dayton Literay Peace Prize - 2011 Richardson, C.  (2011). Dayton literary peace prize. Poets & Writers Magazine, 39(1), 114. Retrieved from Gale Academic OneFile.

American Book Award - 2010 Hartig, J. (2010).  Before Columbus Foundation. Poets & Writers Magazine 38(6), 129-130. Retrieved from Gale Academic OneFile.

Josh Parr, a journalism student from Southern Methodist University, interviews Zeitoun as part of his campus newspaper's NOLA Now series.

The Zeitoun Foundation was created in 2009 to aid in the rebuilding of and ongoing helath of the city of New Orleans, and to help ensure the human rights of all Americans.