The first 1/3 of What is the What was more difficult to read than I expected.  It begins with Achak being beaten and robbed of the little that he owns, and then waking to find himself under the guard of a young boy, who seems to be fond of heavy books.  During the time that he is tied up, he imagines telling the "TV boy" or Micheal about his own experiences as a young boy, and the horrors that took place in his hometown of Marial Bai and nearby towns.  Before he goes into detail about these, he fast forwards to travelling with a group of "Lost Boys" and being attacked by lions. Going backward in time, Achak lives a peaceful life, but when army soldiers desert Marial Bai, the murahaleen descend and wreak havoc. Achak's friends and family members are killed and he flees into the wilderness, where he comes across several small groups and eventually a huge group of people with livestock.  These Dinka people are then surrounded by murahaleen again, but Achak manages to escape.  He describes more of the present in which Micheal presumably looks at Achak's pictures of Tabitha; The girl that he loves.  Achak mentions classes that the two took together in Kakuma, and then how Tabitha went to the U.S. and their re connection.  Achak befriends Mary Williams, one of the women in charge of the Lost Boy's foundation, even if his friends believe that she was not able to get them a good enough education.    What a mouthfull!
     I was curious about what the "September Laws" were, so I did a wee bit of research...These laws were created by an Islamist leader who wanted to create an Islamic republic with sharia law.  They were enforced in 1983 and lasted up until 1985 .  The implementation of these laws led to civil war between Muslims, Christians  and  people practicing any other religion.
-Oxford Islamic Studies Online