Angelina Jolie in New York City Wednesday
Splash News Online
What Is the What, by Dave Eggers (A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius), is a "fictionalized autobiography" of a real-life Sudanese refugee named Valentino Achak Deng. Jolie actually makes a cameo in the story, as Deng recounts his immigration to the United States and his encounter with the actress.
"Ms. Jolie walked in, accompanied by a grey-haired man in a baseball cap," Deng says in chapter 13. "The two of them sat on a couch. ... I had no idea who she was; I was told she was an actress of some kind, and when I met her, she did look like an actress – she had the same careful poise, the same flirtatious eye of Miss Gladys, my extremely attractive drama teacher in Kakuma, and so I liked her immediately."
The book's topic is close to Jolie's heart: In March, she and Brad Pitt donated $100,000 to help build a medical facility in the Sudan, and Pitt executive produced the documentary God Grew Tired of Us, about the young refugees known as the Lost Boys of the Sudan.
