You Shall Know Our Velocity
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You Shall Know Our Velocity (or YSKOV) is a novel written by Dave Eggers, published in hardcover in San Francisco, California by McSweeney's in 2002 with ISBN 0970335555, and later in paperback in New York by Vintage in 2003 with ISBN 1400033543. It is important to note that the paperback contains a 50-page section, that the hardcover does not, inserted into the middle of the story. The resulting addition calls into question the reliability of the narrator, and the truth of the story being told. Therefore, depending on which edition you read, You Shall Know Our Velocity can be seen as two different stories.
The story follows Hand and Will, two childhood friends who set out on a week-long, around-the-world odyssey, ostensibly to give away a large sum of money. It seems that Will has come into cash, which for one reason or another he thinks he doesn't deserve, and wants to get rid of it as soon as possible. So he concocts a piece of "Conceptual Life", wherein they will give the money away, bit by bit, to people they decide are most deserving. Without a solid set of criteria, or a definitive direction to their travels, they encounter much confusion, and are barely able to achieve their goal.
A pseudo-sequel entitled The Only Meaning of the Oil-Wet Water follows Hand and the minor character Pilar in Central America. It is featured in the collection How We Are Hungry: Stories.