Reuben Gill's fondest wish is to be assigned by the UN High Commission on Refugees to Bidong, Malaysia, where he believes he can recapture his idyllic Peace Corps days. What he finds will change him forever. Written with energy and true wit, this is a novel about how difficult it is to save the world, about doing the right thing for the wrong reasons and the wrong thing for the right reasons. It's a novel about the impossibility — and the necessity — of hope. In the tradition of Joseph Heller's Catch 22, Saviors is a darkly comic look at good intentions gone awry. It's a funny, thoughtful novel of great power.

"Wow! What a debut! Eggers is a masterful writer, and this book positions him to join the ranks of Maugham and Forster and Conrad, Paul Theroux and Norman Rush. Saviors is as funny as Twain and as dark as Stone. I gulped it down, amazed by the deftness of Eggers' style. Saviors is an enormously accomplished and entertaining novel." — Bob Shacochis, author of Swimming in the Volcano

"Saviors is never anything but spirited, funny and, if such a word can be used, wise. It is a lovely book, keenly perceived, original, and wonderful to read." — Craig Nova, author of The Universal Donor

"This first novel is bleak but also steeped in black humor that is reminiscent of MASH." — Booklist

"Paul Eggers seems to have learned from someone that the novelist is allowed to think, so bravo! This is a serious, painful first novel by someone as daring as he is well-informed." — Paul West, author of Lord Byron's Doctor

Nebraska Center for Writers