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)

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.

Great Story is all I can say

I just finished Zeitoun and I highly recommend it. I thought I had an idea of what their Katrina-related story was about -- I listened to an NPR program where he and his wife were the guest speakers and I listened to the NPR This American Life episode on the Katrina. aftermath...however prepared I thought I was -- and sort of dreaded listening, I did not know the extent of the Zeitoun's story. It is something else -- you can only say, "in America, this happened?" Out of context, one would think that the location was in a third world country...incredible, sad, but the Zeitoun’s have a story to tell and in the end, they are sanguine, still, about their future, about the United States. It is a family story, actually, and not that difficult to read -- it does pick up into the meatier more exciting material midway, but one needs to know about the family history to become connected -- sort of a must read, I think. I thought the narration was excellent, too.

amazing

An amazing story where empathy and strong morals triumph and shine through darkness with the light of humanity.

Compelling but has not aged well

I wish I knew before reading it the subsequent crimes against his family that the protagonist committed.

You Don't Know Everything about Katrina

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

I am!!

Boy if you ever wondered how you would fair after a weather adversity, you need to read this. It's a true story about how one ethnic family was treated in such adverse conditions. How the media fueled the flame to create a manic situation. It's written factual, not negative or seeking sympathy.

When I first came across this, my first reaction was if I really needed to rehash it all again....yeah, I did.

What other book might you compare Zeitoun to and why?

I don't think I have read a book like it. It was scary truthful - not in a poor me manner. I have to say too that I was shocked how ignorant I was about the Muslim faith from reading this book.

What does Firdous Bamji bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

Obviously, pronouncing the foreign words. Because most of us not middle easterners can't say the words, we just skip over those groups of unfamiliar letters that we can not pronounce.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

I don't want to say because I read a review of this book that told too much and ruined a piviotal part in this book for me....when Kathy wasn't getting an answer. I wish I had not read that review for I was right there with her.

Any additional comments?

Loved it. I am so shocked to read some reviews. This book was SO SO SO not boring. It is so so more than a story about Katrina. It's more about racism and ignorance and having too much trust in your govenment.

Couldn't Happen To A Nicer Guy!

NB: The main character lives through this ordeal, fathers a son, and rebuilds in New Orleans. I began listening thinking that he would never be found or would be found dead. The suffering of his wife and family is immense. I love biography and even if the story is shocking or unpleasant, I can at least read about what someone else has lived through. ... I have admired Muslim people from a distance -- a mixed-race American couple selling beside me at the Berkeley flea market. I watched them pray, nurse the baby, greet one another. An Afghan gentleman with a doctorate from Oxford selling hotdogs at the same flea market. I loved hearing about Zeitoun's wonderful family, the American-born wife who converted on her own, the hard-working husband and his observations of his situation. I had watched the Katrina aftermath on "Democracy Now!" and had no illusions about what I call the armpit of the country -- or the Bush administration. I had been stationed in Biloxi with the USAF. I had a prowler one night at my little garage apartment downtown. When I called the police, then I really did have a problem. I entered a contest to name a business; the owner's daughter won the contest! Four decades later, I am waiting to hear on a veteran claim that has been dogged at every level over 8 years by incompetence, corruption, carelessness, etc. Kathy was so brave to call CNN! What a woman! As for the production, the reading is perfectly understandable, top-notch. Eggers seems to stay in the background, simply telling the story. There is no need to comment that the whole business is an outrage. . . . As a young girl touring Europe, I visited the concentration camp in Dachau. It made me sick, and I closed my eyes and prayed that no one person ever get that much power again. . . . This story has helped me understand and love Muslim Americans better and has also put my own small difficulty in perspective. God bless this sweet family and give them many years of joy together!

Gripping True Story

Zeitoun is our community's One Book, One Community selection, and it's easy to see why it was chosen. It has very interesting characters, a gripping story and it's true - depicting terrible injustices committed by our government against some of the victims of Hurrican Katrina.

Since the book was selected and promoted for community wide reading and discussion, Zeitoun himself has now found himself charged with attempting to hire others to murder his wife.

Dave Eggers' book takes care to paint Zeitoun as a man who is very concerned with doing the right thing for others, and doing what God would want him to do as a devout Muslim. Of course, none of that is in keeping with the charges he now faces. Zeitoun was a troubling book that left me with many unanswered questions.

Sad, Shocking, and Inspiring

An incredible story about survival, spirituality, love, and injustice. This work truly exposes some of the best and worst tendencies of America and Americans.

better than I expected

I love New Orleans. I've visited many times. After Katrina, the school I worked at ran numerous find raisers and staff joined rebuilding efforts. This book told aspects of that event from an intensely personal perspective. I enjoyed the writing and the portrayal of Muslims. I was shocked and sad about other parts of the story, but overall, it was very well done and narrated just right.

Katrina’s cost for one man and his family

Tremendously painful in so many ways, from fury at Zeitoun’s stubbornness and admiration for his deep caring to the injustices he suffered at the hands of the government of the city he loves.