The Keeper of the Ornaments

Cole lives alone, has no pets, and has grown accustomed to a homelife of profound quiet (not to say tedium). When Daphne and her two young children move into the apartment next door, the noise is extraordinary--impossible to believe, really--and Cole assumes he’ll have to move. But his new neighbors, and their very odd cats, see him differently than he sees himself, and he soon adopts an entirely new persona, that of an older gentleman in a cardigan, ready to assist and advise. This third installment of the series of mini-books called The Forgetters builds into a powerful meditation on forgiveness, grace, and the happiness of being called upon.

Dave Eggers is the author of many books, including The Every, The Circle, Museum of Rain, The Monk of Mokha, and the National Book Award finalist A Hologram for the King, as well as numerous books for young readers, including Her Right Foot, Faraway Things, and The Lifters. He is the founder of the independent publishing company McSweeney’s and the college-access nonprofit ScholarMatch, and the co-founder of 826 Valencia, a youth writing center that has inspired dozens of other centers worldwide. He is the winner of the Muhammad Ali Humanitarian Award for Education and the Dayton Literary Peace Prize.