In Sudan, water is more precious than gold. You can't drink gold, but you need to drink water.
It is 2008, and in this modern world, eleven-year-old Nya trudges two hours on foot each way to a murky pond that holds the only source of water for her family. It is easy going, because the water jug is empty and light. Going home is much harder. After she eats a small meal, she begins the second journey to the pond that day. Each day, she walks back and forth twice, supplying the only water her family can get.
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In 1985, eleven-year-old Salva Dut's life is also bound up in the quest for water. Each dry season, the whole village packs up and moves to the dry river bed, where they dig in the mud for a trickle of water.
As Salva sits daydreaming in the school room, he thinks of taking the cattle to the pond. Suddenly rifle fire tears the afternoon quiet. Told to flee by the teacher, Salva is separated from his family. For more than a year, he is forced to
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