Zeitoun by Dave Eggers (Review by Grant Seely)

Zeitoun

By Dave Eggers 

Review by Grant Seely

           Zeitoun is the true story of one family's journey, from the escape of Hurricane Katrina to the persecution and discrimination of the New Orleans married couple named Abdulrahman and Kathy Zeitoun and their children.  Zeitoun and his family feel very blessed by the life they have been given and work hard to provide for their family and give back to the community. During this time Hurricane Katrina begins its journey towards New Orleans and things change very quickly. Kathy decides it would be for the best for her and the children to drive to Baton Rouge clear from the storm, but Zeitoun refuses and  chooses to stay in the city to watch over their properties and homes. After surviving through the storm Zeitoun finds and canoe and paddles through the city which is close to completely submerged in which he assists neighbors and anyone else he comes across.  A couple days after the natural disaster, Zeitouns adventure takes a sudden change as he comes across one of  his Syrian friends, Nasser, and and a man named Todd, along with an unexpected stranger, Ronnie.  Soon after this group of people are taken by a group of heavily armed men and are taken to a makeshift jail in a nearby. They are searched and held for numerous reasons without what seems like no reason, being brutally mistreated the entire time. Throughout this story  Zeitouns faith in god and his country are tested. I found this book to be very touching and it brought me into the book with Zeitoun and his adventures. It also exposed all of the horrors that occurred post Hurricane Katrina.  Overall I would easily recommend this book to anyone who wanted and in depth thrilling true tale that will keep you reading from cover to cover.