About this title: 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 ...
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Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is described below.
Edition: First edition, first printing
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: McSweeney's
Date Published: 2009
Description: As new and bright decorative cloth edition with crisp bright text throughout. As issued without dustjacket but with wrap band to back cover. A sharp copy all around. read more
Edition: First Edition, First Printing
Binding: Pictorial Cover
Publisher: McSweeney Books, San Francisco
Date Published: 2009
ISBN-13:9781934781630ISBN:1934781630
Description: As New. No Jacket. Signed by Author Eggers opus to this point in a brilliant career. read more
Edition: First Edition
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: McSweeny's Books, San Francisco, Ca
Date Published: 2009
ISBN-13:9781934781630ISBN:1934781630
Description: New. No Jacket. SIGNED. Signed by Author AN OUTSTANDING COPY-SIGNED by the AUTHOR on the Title page. Author's Signature only. A First edition, First printing, with the corresponding number line. Book is in Fine condition. Boards are clean, not bumped. Fore edges are clean. Interior is clean and legible. Not remaindered. Has a fur covering instead of a normal Dust Jacket. Thanks and Enjoy. read more
Edition: First edition. First Printing
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: McSweeney's Books
Date Published: 2009
ISBN-13:9781934781630ISBN:1934781630
Description: New. No dust jacket as issued. Signed by author. Sewn binding. Cloth over boards. 351 p. Contains: Illustrations. Audience: General/trade. SIGNED BY AUTHOR on title page. First Edition/First Printing. New book, opened only for signing. Ships in a box. read more
Description: New. 1934781630 *NEW BOOK! * RETURNS ARE NO PROBLEM! We LOVE happy customers. All our orders sent with tracking information. ALIBRIS. read more
Edition: First Edition; First Printing
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: McSweeney's
Date Published: 2009
ISBN-13:9781934781630ISBN:1934781630
Description: Near Fine in Near Fine dust jacket. 9781934781630. 1.1 x 8.6 x 6.2 Inches; 342 pages; Carefully packaged and mailed to be the best arrival condition. Thank you for shopping with us. read more
Description: In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, longtime New Orleans residents Abdulrahman and Kathy Zeitoun are cast into an unthinkable struggle with forces beyond wind and water. In this startling and deeply humane work of nonfiction, readers will witness the USA's worst natural disaster through new eyes, encountering all the hope and contradiction of a unique moment in American history. ISBN10: 024114485X. read more
Description: We are no longer able to guarantee delivery by Christmas. Please note that deliveries to addresses in the UK and Europe will be in 4-14 business days. Other countries should refer to Alibris standard times. In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, longtime New Orleans residents Abdulrahman and Kathy Zeitoun are cast into an unthinkable struggle with forces beyond wind and water. In this startling and deeply humane work of nonfiction, readers will witness the USA's worst natural disaster through new ... read more
Edition: First Edition
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: McSweeney's, San Francisco
Date Published: 2009
Description: As New. Hardcover. SIGNED Fine, new, clean, crisp and unread first printing, SIGNED by the author to the title page with his name only. Bound in fresh, sharp pictorial boards, the burgundy spine stamped in large silver titles, produced without a dust jacket but with a black vertical wrap-around band with laudatory blurbs for this extraordinary nonfiction story. Dave Eggers has produced another brilliant tour-de-force in his telling of the surreal ordeal of Arab American Zeitoun in the chaos of ... read more
Description: We are no longer able to guarantee delivery by Christmas. PLEASE NOTE that we do not offer expedited shipping. Orders placed with the priority shipping option will automatically be canceled. In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, longtime New Orleans residents Abdulrahman and Kathy Zeitoun are cast into an unthinkable struggle with forces beyond wind and water. In this startling and deeply humane work of nonfiction, readers will witness the USA's worst natural disaster through new eyes, encountering ... read more
"This book was the first by Eggers I've read, so I had none of the baggage that people seem to have about him. It's a nonfiction account of a Syrian-American owner of a house painting company who stayed behind in New Orleans for Katrina. He ends up paddling around in a canoe helping out various people he finds in small ways -- but that's not the real story here.
The true story here is a story of government in America, or at least in a Southern state therein. The officialdom is painted as far more concerned with coercion and fears than helping people -- as military transports at first just ignore people in need of help, and eventually turn on those helping, accusing them of looting and even worse things. Zeitoun ends up in prison, inevitably accused of terrorist activity, and without rights or due process whatsoever.
Most of all, it brings alive the possibility that most of the tragedies of Katrina were not caused by the storm, but ones people inflicted on each other -- most of all people who relish a little too much holding power over others. It's a sad indictment of the officialdom involved -- a sign that perhaps the government has become what our Constitution was meant to prevent, a citizenry which is, in times of duress, at the mercy of sociopaths who've managed to put themselves into a position of power.
I finished this book in less than 24 hours. It was definitely worth a read. Now I'm not sure what to do next with it. It's very unsettling."
"I'm fascinated by pre and post-Katrina New Orleans. It was interesting to read an account from the ground, so to speak, of someone who stayed during and after the storm to help the people and animals who needed his assistance. This is an extremely intense read. Even before Abdulrahman Zeitoun, a Syrian American painting contractor and resident of New Orleans is wrongfully arrested and caged secretly, unable to phone anyone to let them know he was still alive, the events he witnesses in feeding dogs left behind by evacuating neighbors who thought they'd be back in a couple days and elderly folks who always stayed during storms. I liked being able to witness, day by day both Zeitoun and his wife, Kathy's experiences during and after the storm. Parts of the books were very difficult to read, primarily Zeitoun's experience being kept imprisoned secretly, all of his civil rights violated. In hindsight, it certainly seems absurd that Homeland Security could imagine a hurricane being an opportunity for alleged terrorists to do anything. The racial profiling that goes on was unsurprising but incredibly depressing. The worst of it is, if a similar catastrophic natural disaster were to occur, I'm not sure that FEMA or Homeland Security would have learned anything from the ineptitude and cruelty they inflicted on the citizens of New Orleans."
"This is the first book I've read of Dave Eggers' since A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius (which I also loved), so I was surprised to find his narration, which was so internal and spiraling in his memoir, so journalistic and ego-less. The writing is spare and clear and calls no attention to itself, so that instead we readers are more transfixed by the characterization of the Zeitoun family, and of the tragic events that unfolded in the murky wake of Hurricane Katrina. The detailing of racial profiling against Muslims -- gracias a FEMA and the blatantly unconstitutional martial law set up in New Orleans almost immediately when Katrina struck -- is described in terrifying detail, as is the more common and just-as-disturbing distrust that many denizens of our country feel toward those who speak with a Middle-Eastern accent or wear a hijab. The treatment of our own citizens -- arrested and denied even the most basic human rights (and on American soil!) -- brought me to tears. I was very ashamed of the USA reading this book, but Eggers is such a good writer and such a good person -- and his subjects are such good people -- that the end does not linger in anger but instead mirrors the Zeitouns' own hopes that our country continues to strive toward the great ideals it purports to espouse (life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness). Despite our short-comings, despite our frightening history, I was moved. An index at the back of the book recommends several organizations where you can assist those New Orleans citizens still in need. Kudos to Eggers and McSweeneys' for publishing a book of such import, and thank you to the Zeitouns for being the sort of citizens that truly do make the US a great place to live."
"Hardworking Syrian immigrant Abdulrahman Zeitoun is a devout Muslim who has raised himself up by his bootstraps to own his own successful handyman business, which has slowly evolved to not only a solid client base but owning multiple properties in New Orleans. When Hurricane Katrina hits, his wife Kathy reluctantly heads out of town with the kids but Zeitoun remains behind, shoring up windows and tying down ladders for customers, friends and neighbors. Soon, it's impossible to leave the city, and he moves the valuables up a floor or two. A canoe comes in handy when the levees break and his neighborhood is flooded
In the aftermath, he maintains a noon phone date with his wife, who is afraid for his life as she hears about looting, mayhem, death and property damage on the news. Zeitoun feeds abandoned animals and tries to help those who need it, but no good deed goes unpunished. He is eventually detained and arrested by out of town law enforcement and thrown into a makeshift jail on unfounded charges of terrorism, and can't seem to get answers, or a doctor (he hurts his foot pretty badly) let alone a phone call, a lawyer, or a trial.
This was an unputdownable book - the drama of the storm, the amazing stories of generosity coupled with brutality, the tension of whether Zeitoun would survive his ordeal... it was riveting. Eggers admirably manages to tell this horrific story of racial profiling without getting angry, and provides extensive acknowledgements, but not source notes, at the end. Zeitoun is a fascinating look at an untold piece of the more-than-natural disaster of Katrina."
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