Writer Dave Eggers and the South Sudanese man whose story he told in his 2006 book "What Is the What" were at UW-Madison on Wednesday to talk about the pair's work in Sudan and to urge the overflow crowd to get involved in efforts to bring peace to the country.

"What is the What," a finalist for the 2006 National Book Critics Circle Award, is a fictionalized account of Valentino Achak Deng's experience as a refugee from Sudan's civil war. Proceeds from the book's sale fund a foundation he runs that focuses on increasing educational opportunities in his home village of Marial Bai.

Much of Tuesday's talk and an accompanying slide show concerned Deng's work to build a secondary school in the remote village.

"This is before we even started," Deng said, showing a slide of the sign that marked the future site of the school. "We were just given land. The thing was just a dream."

It took about a year to build the school, far less time that it takes much larger nongovernmental organizations to do similar projects in the region, Eggers said.

Deng said he made a special effort to get girls enrolled in the school because their educational needs have long been ignored in Sudan.

Eggers described the difficulty he had structuring the book, and said that about three years into it, he gave himself permission to quit.

That was when he realized that what the book needed was the feel of a novel that stuck as close to the historical facts of Deng's experience as possible. When he called Deng to tell him this, Deng's response surprised him.

"He said 'I just assumed you were doing that anyway,' " he said.

Wednesday's talk at the Chazen Museum of Art drew an overflow crowd to an auditorium designed to hold 289 people. Some who couldn't get through the doors to the auditorium eventually left.

Among those who stayed was Eggers fan Andrew Mandic, 35.

He said he's read most of the author's books, including "What is the What," and was impressed by Eggers' ability to tell Deng's story without sounding patronizing.

Mandic also said he's been impressed by Eggers' work with the San Francisco-based nonprofit 826 Valencia, which helps students with their writing skills.

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