* In a rising Saudi Arabian city, far from weary, recession-scarred America, a struggling businessman pursues a last-ditch attempt to stave off foreclosure, pay his daughter's college fees and finally do something great.
Dave Eggers is the bestselling author of seven books including "A Hologram for the King," a finalist for the National Book Award; "Zeitoun," winner of the American Book Award and Dayton Literary Peace Prize; and "What Is the What," which was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and won France's Prix Medici. In 2002, with Ninive Calegari he cofounded 826 Valencia, a nonprofit writing and tutoring center for youth in the Mission District of San Francisco. Local communities around the country have since opened sister 826 centers. Eggers lives in Northern California with his wife and two children.