Contrapposto

“Glorious and captivating, with Eggers’ signature humor and precision, Contrapposto tells a big and big-hearted story that counter-positions exquisitely the pain and exhilarations of love and the creative impulse. I loved this novel.”
—Lily King, author of Heart the Lover

“This is a portrait of an artist as a young man, but then on through life, to the end, told by one of our finest artists. With Contrapposto, Dave Eggers gives us, generously and precisely, clear and bright, a story about why we create, and how we love.”
—Tommy Orange, author of Wandering Stars

“This book speaks to my heart. With wit, wisdom, and deep empathy, Contrapposto asks all the hard questions that haunt and enliven a creative life—about art and beauty, about commerce and class, about the cost of passion and the price of success.”
—Ruth Ozeki, author of The Book of Form and Emptiness

“A book of profundity, humanity, and ravishing beauty—the only kind of book I want to read.”
—Andrew Sean Greer, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Less

“Dave Eggers’ new novel, Contrapposto, begins with a simple question: What is art? The answer turns out to be a stunning high-wire act and, boy, does Eggers stick the landing. Better yet, the book is a love story that just won’t quit.”
—Richard Russo, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Empire Falls

“Contrapposto is extraordinary, a lucid and passionate künstlerroman and a drawing of the negative space around the contemporary art world. Cricket, given great talent and passion, is also a quiet rebel: His inability to agree to any of the small compromises necessary to become a big name is what keeps his art a pure, good, white-hot thing.”
—Lauren Groff, author of Brawler

“Contrapposto answers the question, ‘Why are novels irreplaceable?’ From page one, I fell in love with its perfectly flawed characters, its big beating heart, its brain and its language. What a sublime act of fiction.”
—David Mitchell, author of Cloud Atlas

“Eggers has been a reliably inventive, big-swing storyteller with a knack for mixing heart, humor, and a little cultural side-eye. . . . What begins as a grade-school act of vandalism becomes a 65-year entanglement of friendship, collaboration, and longing.”
—Oprah Daily

“The inimitable Dave Eggers returns with a book about life, love and art, featuring the classically trained artist’s own work. . . . So begins 50 years of dancing around the art world and each other as they search for love, meaning, loyalty and more.”
—People

“A tour de force.”
—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“Surpassingly beautiful and enthralling . . . [Eggers] ingeniously meshes the arresting and affecting drama of Cricket and Olympia with an insightful, caustically funny, at times tragic, and truly profound inquiry into the making and meaning of art. . . . Gloriously brought to fruition.”
—Booklist (starred review)

“A tender, searching novel for readers still devastated by Sally Rooney’s Normal People.”
—Library Journal

“Contrapposto is by turns wistful and humorous, a wide-angle, wholly absorbing study of deep friendship and making meaning through art.”
—Alta, “Editor’s Pick”