Skip to content

Dave Eggers Contrapposto

€19.99

New
Code 9781837267378

Twenty years in the making, a novel about art, life and the complicated beauty of both - from the author of The Circle and A Hologram for the King

Add to Basket
Description

Binding: Paperback

Date Published: 02 Jul 2026

Cricket is just a shy kid who likes drawing when he first meets Olympia. She's older, more confident; she bullies him into some light vandalism and instantly he's in love. When they're together, they talk about their futures, how they're going to travel the world, the beauty and rapture of art.

Then those futures start to arrive in unexpected ways, the years and decades pile up between them, the art world seduces and disappoints and frustrates them. And they have to figure out, again and again, what it is to be an artist, and who and what to love.

This is a wild and beautiful novel about two friends who believe they can change the world, if only they can start their own movement, dodge charlatans, remain open-eyed and open-hearted, avoid going mad, avoid dying young of rare cancers, stay true to their ideals and never tire of beauty. Not easy, but not impossible, either.

About the Author

Dave Eggers is the author of many books, among them The Every, The Circle, The Monk of Mokha, A Hologram for the King, What Is the What, and The Museum of Rain. He is the cofounder of 826 National, a network of youth writing centers, and Voice of Witness, an oral history book series that illuminates the stories of those impacted by human rights crises. A member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, Eggers has been a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award, and the National Book Critics Circle Award, and is the recipient of the Dayton Literary Peace Prize, the American Book Award and the Newbery Medal, for the most distinguished contribution to children's literature with The Eyes and the Impossible.
daveeggers.net

Delivery Info

We provide FREE delivery in the Republic of Ireland when you spend €49 or more. 

FREE Click & Collect from The Ennis Bookshop. You will not be charged for this service.  We are happy to arrange Delivery outside Ireland. Please e-mail us at enquiries@ennisbookshop.ie for more information. 

Find out more about our Delivery & Collection services

Returns Policy

We want you to be completely satisfied with your order and we would hope to resolve any problems you may have. If you are unhappy with your purchase, we will exchange or refund the item or issue a credit note, providing the goods are not damaged and all packaging is still intact.

Terms and conditions apply.

Please view our full Returns Policy for further information.

Click to view complete product details

More Like This

Glorious and captivating, with Eggers' signature humour 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
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
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
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
Contrapposto is extraordinary, a lucid and passionate Kunstlerroman 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
Wonderful - both gentle and gripping, simple and profound, personal and universal - I feel so very glad to have read it. Contrapposto is a kind novel; good-hearted, alive and alert to possibility and beauty in all situations -- CATHY RENTZENBRINK
An insightful, caustically funny, at times tragic, and truly profound inquiry into the making and meaning of art * * Booklist * *
Eggers has been a reliably inventive, big-swing storyteller with a knack for mixing heart, humoUr, 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 Magazine * *

Close

POP-IN HTML goes here

Close

Your Basket

Your basket is currently empty