EAST LANSING, Mich. — From 1983 to 2003, nearly 27,000 young boys and men fled civil war in the Republic of Sudan. These “Lost Boys of Sudan” trekked 1,000 miles across Africa only to face starvation, wild animals and disease.

Benjamin Ajak of the San Diego area, a Lost Boy and co-author of “They Poured Fire on Us From the Sky,” will relate his personal journey to freedom during visits to East Lansing as part of “One Book, One Community” events in August and September.

Ajak will be joined by his American mentor, Judy A. Bernstein of San Diego, who, along with Ajak, and his cousins Benson and Alepho Deng, wrote the book detailing each man’s personal story. The Lost Boy authors were younger than seven years old when soldiers attacked their villages. They spent many years in refugee camps, facing new sets of hardships before coming to the United States.

Ajak and Bernstein will speak at 7:30 p.m. tonight,  in the East Lansing High School Auditorium, 509 Burcham Drive. The event is free and open to the public, and attendees will be seated on a first-come basis. Doors will open at 6:45 p.m.

The authors also will address incoming freshmen at the MSU Fall Welcome events at 9:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 21, at the Wharton Center for Performing Arts.

In 2001, with the aid of several relief organizations, 3,800 Lost Boys of Sudan were settled in several U.S. cities, including Lansing.

The “One Book, One Community” project, co-sponsored by the city of East Lansing and MSU, encourages the city-university community to read the same book and come together to discuss it in a variety of settings. The book is assigned reading for all incoming MSU freshmen.

A series of writing workshops and readings also are planned in September.

For more information and to register for the workshop sessions, visit the Web at www.onebook.msu.edu.

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