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VAD: It is very close to the truth, but many things in the book are somewhat different than what happened in life. Some characters have been combined. Some time is compressed. They are minor things, but they were necessary. For one thing, I was very young when the book begins, so I could not remember conversations and small details from my early childhood in Marial Bai. It was necessary to reconstruct the chronology, and that is what Dave did. He took the basic facts and then created the story from there.

In 2001, intolerable living conditions in the refugee camp gave the United States government reason to resettle some 4,000 of these now young men in America.

The walking seemed endless. So did the sun, and the thirst. Every day.

And walked. And walked.

He walked because stopping might mean death. Or enslavement.

conflict from 1983 to 2005 between the central Sudanese government

. It lasted for 22 years

North/South Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) ends civil war

deal provides for a permanent ceasefire, autonomy for the south, a power-sharing government involving rebels in Khartoum and a south Sudanese referendum on independence in six years' time.

natural resources of Sudan, particularly in the South, where there are significant oil fields.

70% of Sudan's export earnings.

Nile river and heavier precipitation in southern Sudan, the south also has greater access to water, and is therefore much more fertile

Sudan had two distinct major cultures -- Arab and Black African -- with hundreds of ethnic and tribal divisions and language groups, which makes effective collaboration among them a major problem.

The southern region, which eventually achieved independence as South Sudan, has a population of around 6 million and a predominantly rural, subsistence economy. This region had been negatively affected by war for all but 10 years of the independence period (1956), resulting in serious neglect, lack of infrastructure development, and major destruction and displacement. More than 2 million people died, and more than 4 million were internally displaced or become refugees as a result of the civil war and war-related impacts.

Although Egypt claimed all of the present Sudan during most of the 19th century, it was unable to establish effective control over southern Sudan, which remained an area of fragmented tribes subject to frequent attacks by slave raiders.

A notable quality among the refugees is their extraordinary ability to cope with chronic adversity and trauma even though some suffer from symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder.

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esettlement experiences based on whether they were minors or adults. Minors had to adjust (and some who are still minors continue to adjust) to American schools and living in American foster families, having lived mostly in peer groups prior to resettlement.