EAST LANSING, Mich. — Acclaimed author Dave Eggers’ Zeitoun has been announced as the 2010 One Book, One Community (OBOC) selection by the City of East Lansing and Michigan State University (MSU).

Community members can meet the author as he kicks off the month-long OBOC program on Sunday, Aug. 29 at 7 p.m. at the East Lansing High School auditorium. He will also welcome freshmen at the MSU Academic Welcome at the Breslin Student Events Center on Monday, Aug. 30 at 9 a.m. In addition, a series of community and campus events are planned around the themes in Zeitoun.

About the Book
Zeitoun tells the true story of one man’s harrowing struggle to survive in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. The surreal scenes that the world witnessed on their televisions in late August and through the fall of 2005 are mirrored in the Kafkaesque experiences of one man, Abdulrahman Zeitoun, a Syrian-American immigrant known simply as Zeitoun. A long-time resident of New Orleans, he and his wife Kathy operated a highly successful contracting business in the city when catastrophe struck.
 
As the hurricane descended, Kathy took their four children and fled to the safety of family in Baton Rouge. In spite of Kathy’s pleas, Zeitoun stayed behind to look after their home and business. As the flood waters rushed in he began to save lives and reach out to those in need by delivering supplies, feeding abandoned animals and looking after the property of others, all while traveling in a 16-foot aluminum canoe. With most communications out, he was unaware of the extent of the horrors going on in the Convention Center, Superdome, overpasses and elsewhere in the city.
 
After six days, anarchy finds him. Armed officers that Zeitoun believes have come to help him, instead arrest and incarcerate him in an outdoor cage serving as a jail. This jail had been newly constructed amidst the chaos on the grounds of the city’s bus terminal. Charged with no crime, Zeitoun was held among many for weeks in a lawless atmosphere in what became known as Camp Greyhound. Eventually he was taken to a jail in Louisiana, where he remained isolated for months as his wife tried desperately to find him and gain his release.

About the Author
Dave Eggers is the author of six previous books including The Wild Things, Zeitoun, What Is the What and A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius. Eggers is the founder and editor of McSweeney's, an independent publishing house based in San Francisco that produces a quarterly journal, a monthly magazine and a quarterly DVD. He also wrote the screenplay for Where the Wild Things Are and Away We Go. A native of Chicago, Eggers graduated from the University of Illinois with a degree in journalism. He now lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with his wife and two children.

About the Program
The annual One Book, One Community program, sponsored by the City of East Lansing and Michigan State University, encourages the city-university community to read the same book and come together to discuss it in a variety of settings. The book is an assigned reading for all incoming MSU freshmen.

For additional information about the OBOC program, please visit www.onebook.msu.edu.

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