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While 'You Shall Know Our Velocity' is worth a read if you are a fan of Eggers, it is not a good stand-alone novel for newcomers to his work. The work of Dave Eggers is as diverse and broad in scope as it is gripping and impossible to put down. From his world-famous semi-autobiographical Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius to the semi-biographical What Is the What, Eggers has a way of capturing the constant movement of things and the epic quality of extreme circumstances. While You Shall Know Our Velocity is an engaging and fast read like his other works, it seems somehow less realistic - probably because it is.

A Heartbreaking Work is based largely on Eggers' own life experience and What Is The What draws on the true heart-wrenching tale of a young Sudanese refugee. You Shall Know Our Velocity is largely fictional and much more fantastical. This work follows the lives of two young men who travel the world in search of some form of (non-religious) salvation. While this isn't his strongest work, it does explore some new territory for dedicated fans of Eggers. Also, as with the other works of Eggers, a reader can't help but become invested in the characters and their fate.

Still, if you are new to Eggers you should start with What Is the What - it is definitively his best work. It catalogs the early life of a Sudanese refugee, who starts out as part of an ordinary family only to have his world turned upside down in a single day when civil war comes to his village. From there on it becomes a tale of his fast-paced flight to safety - an educational and gripping page-turner through and through.

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