The Eyes & the Impossible

Contents Cover Other Titles Title page Copyright Dedication Chapter One Chapter Two Chapter Three Chapter Four Chapter Five Chapter Six Chapter Seven Chapter Eight Chapter Nine Chapter Ten Chapter Eleven Chapter Twelve Chapter Thirteen Chapter Fourteen Chapter Fifteen Chapter Sixteen Chapter Seventeen Chapter Eighteen Chapter Nineteen Chapter Twenty Chapter Twenty-one Chapter Twenty-two Chapter Twenty-three Chapter Twenty-four Chapter Twenty-five Chapter Twenty-six Chapter Twenty-seven Chapter Twenty-eight Chapter Twenty-nine Chapter Thirty Chapter Thirty-one Chapter Thirty-two Chapter Thirty-three Chapter Thirty-four Chapter Thirty-five Chapter Thirty-six Chapter Thirty-seven Chapter Thirty-eight Last Chapter A Note about the Art Acknowledgments About the Author Landmarks Cover Cover Title Page Table of Contents Start Copyright Print Page List 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208 209 210 211 212 213 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 221 222 223 224 225 226 227 228 229 230 231 232 233 234 235 236 237 238 239 240 241 242 243 244 245 246 247 248 249 250 251 252 253 254 255 256 
 
 
 
 
 ALSO BY DAVE EGGERS
 The Lifters
 
 
 
 
 
 
 This Is a Borzoi Book Published by Alfred A. Knopf
 This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
 Text copyright © 2023 by Dave Eggers
 Illustrations copyright © 2023 by Shawn Harris
 The painting on this cover is Forest Interior by Berndt Lindholm, 1878, from the Finnish National Gallery, Helsinki. Shawn Harris added Johannes to this painting in 2023.
 All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Alfred A. Knopf, an imprint of Random House Children’s Books, a division of Penguin Random House LLC, New York. Published simultaneously by McSweeney’s, San Francisco, in 2023.
 Knopf, Borzoi Books, and the colophon are registered trademarks of Penguin Random House LLC.
 Illustration credits are located on this page.
 Visit us on the Web! rhcbooks.com
 Educators and librarians, for a variety of teaching tools, visit us at RHTeachersLibrarians.com
 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available upon request.
 ISBN 978-1-5247-6420-3 (trade) — ISBN 978-1-5247-6421-0 (lib. bdg.) — ISBN 978-1-5247-6422-7 (ebook)
 Interior illustrations by Shawn Harris
 McSweeney’s edition cover design by Shawn Harris
 Ebook ISBN 9781524764227
 Random House Children’s Books supports the First Amendment and celebrates the right to read.
 Penguin Random House LLC supports copyright. Copyright fuels creativity, encourages diverse voices, promotes free speech, and creates a vibrant culture. Thank you for buying an authorized edition of this book and for complying with copyright laws by not reproducing, scanning, or distributing any part in any form without permission. You are supporting writers and allowing Penguin Random House to publish books for every reader.
 a_prh_6.0_143390430_c0_r0
 
 
 To all my teachers
 &
 to my stalwart friends
 Amanda, Amy, Andrew & Taylor
 
 
 This is a work of fiction. No places are real places. No animals are real animals. And, most crucially, no animals symbolize people. It is a tendency of the human species to see themselves in everything, to assume all living things, animals in particular, are simply corollaries to humans, but in this book, that is not the case. Here, the dogs are dogs, the birds are birds, goats are goats, the Bison Bison.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Contents
 
 Cover
 Also by Dave Eggers
 Title page
 Copyright
 Dedication
 
 
 Chapter One
 Chapter Two
 Chapter Three
 Chapter Four
 Chapter Five
 Chapter Six
 Chapter Seven
 Chapter Eight
 Chapter Nine
 Chapter Ten
 Chapter Eleven
 Chapter Twelve
 Chapter Thirteen
 Chapter Fourteen
 Chapter Fifteen
 Chapter Sixteen
 Chapter Seventeen
 Chapter Eighteen
 Chapter Nineteen
 Chapter Twenty
 Chapter Twenty-one
 Chapter Twenty-two
 Chapter Twenty-three
 Chapter Twenty-four
 Chapter Twenty-five
 Chapter Twenty-six
 Chapter Twenty-seven
 Chapter Twenty-eight
 Chapter Twenty-nine
 Chapter Thirty
 Chapter Thirty-one
 Chapter Thirty-two
 Chapter Thirty-three
 Chapter Thirty-four
 Chapter Thirty-five
 Chapter Thirty-six
 Chapter Thirty-seven
 Chapter Thirty-eight
 Last Chapter
 
 
 A Note about the Art
 Acknowledgments
 About the Author
 
 
 _143390430_
 
 ONE
 I turn I turn I turn before I lie to sleep and I rise before the Sun. I sleep inside and sleep outside and have slept in the hollow of a thousand-year-old tree. When I sleep I need warmth I need quiet I need freedom from sound. When I sleep I dream of mothers and clouds—clouds are messengers of God—and I dream of pupusas for I love pupusas and eat them with gusto.
 I am a dog called Johannes and I have seen you. I have seen you in this park, my home. If you have come to this park, my vast green and windblown park by the sea, I have seen you. I have seen everyone who has been here, the walkers and runners and bikers and horse-riders and the Bison-seekers and