Excerpt from Contrapposto by Dave Eggers, plus links to reviews, author biography & more

"I'm really glad you could come today," she said, and put her hand on his. It was very warm and his childhood ended. Now he was a young man who women touched suggestively at the track. "When Stuart blew me off, I needed distraction."

Cricket didn't fully register the words in the moment, but later, alone and sober, he played the sentence back. He was a distraction. He knew he should have been wounded by this, but discovered he did not care. About being a stand-in, he did not care. He had filled in when Stuart stood her up, and this was not ideal but it was not at all bad. The day had been glorious, and its ori¬gin, its motivation, didn't matter.

"I'm usually around," he said, and she smiled.

Much later, after everyone else had left the track, when the horses were in their stables and the light was lavender streaked with silver, they drove home.

"Maybe when you get back from Europe we can start," she said, and he remembered that he was going to Europe. A wave of nostalgia passed through him. He would miss her.

"How long will you be there?" she asked, and he realized he did not know.

Excerpted from Contrapposto by Dave Eggers. Copyright © 2026 by Dave Eggers. Excerpted by permission of Knopf. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.