ZEITOUN.

Eggers, Dave.

ISBN 10: 1934781630 / ISBN 13: 9781934781630

Published by San Francisco: McSweeney's (2009)

About this Item

SIGNED hardcover - Early printing. The story of one man's experiences after Hurricane Katrina. Abdulrahman Zeitoun, a successful Syrian-born painting contractor, decides to stay in New Orleans and protect his property while his wife (born in Louisiana and a convert to Islam) and children leave for safety. After the levees break, he uses a small canoe to assist other stranded residents, before being arrested at one of his rental properties along with three other men by an armed squad. They were swept into a vortex of bureaucratic brutality and imprisoned as suspected terrorists; for a long time all his family knew was that he had "disappeared." Highly praised at the time of its publication, this received the American Book Award. A few years later, his wife filed for divorce and he was arrested and indicted not only for extremely violent abuse but for allegedly conspiring to have his ex-wife murdered. He was acquitted of the murder-related charges which came from a "non-credible" source, but convicted of abuse, and for some this cast doubt on the entire story - although itis undeniable that the government's response to Katrina was not only inadequate but focused more on protecting property than on saving lives. At the end of the book, Eggers portrays them as broken but hopeful - unfortunately, they were not only broken but destroyed. SIGNED on the title page. 347 pp plus ads. Fine in illustrated boards. Band wrapped around back cover. Seller Inventory # 73116

Bibliographic Details

Title: ZEITOUN.

Publisher: San Francisco: McSweeney's (2009)

Binding: Hardcover

Signed: Signed by Author(s)

About this title

Synopsis:

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. Like What Is the What, Zeitoun was written in close collaboration with its subjects and involved vast research in this case, in the United States, Spain, and Syria.

From the Inside Flap:

This is a beautiful book. Zeitoun is a poignant, haunting, ethereal story about New Orleans in peril. Eggers has bottled up the feeling of post- Katrina despair better than anyone else. This is a simple story with a lingering
radiance. My admiration for the humanist spirit of Eggers knows no bounds.”
Douglas Brinkley, author of The Great Deluge: Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans, and the Mississippi Gulf Coast

Zeitoun is an American epic. The post-Katrina trials of Abdulrahman
Zeitoun would have baffled even Kafka’s Joseph K. Though Zeitoun’s story could have been a source of cynicism or despair, Dave Eggers’s clear and elegant prose manages to deftly capture many of the signature shortcomings of American life while holding onto the innate optimism and endless drive to more closely match our ideals that Zeitoun and his adopted land share. Juggling these contradictions, Eggers captures the puzzle of America.” Billy Sothern, author of Down in New Orleans

Zeitoun is a gripping and amazing story that highlights so much about the tragedy of Katrina, post-9/11 life for Arabs and Muslims, and the beautiful nature of American multi-cultural society.”
Yousef Munayyer, policy analyst, American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee

"Zeitoun is an instant American classic carved from fierce eloquence and a haunting moral sensibility. By wrestling with the demons of xenophobia and racial profiling that converged in the swirling vortex of Hurricane Katrina and post-9/11 America, Eggers lets loose the angels of wisdom and courage that hover over the lives of the beleaguered, but miraculously unbroken, Abdulrahman and Kathy Zeitoun. This is a major work full of fire and wit by one of our most important writers."
Michael Eric Dyson, author of Come Hell or High Water