Author Dave Eggers dishes on new book "The Eyes and the Impossible"

• We recently asked Eggers about the book and his idea of Chicago fun.

The inspiration: "There's a park in San Francisco called Golden Gate Park, which is a very big and wild park that leads to the Pacific Ocean. In the park, there's an enclosure where a small herd of bison are kept, and I've always felt for them, thinking they might want to be free."

• "So the book is about a stray dog, in a park like Golden Gate Park, planning to free the bison. It's also about death, God and other child-friendly existential issues."

The aim: "I'm guessing it will answer all of life's questions."

You say that the animals don't represent people but, really? "People aren't really more interesting than dogs and bison and squirrels, are they? Do we have to make everything about us?"

Favorite thing to do in Chicago: "To exercise loudly in crowded public places, wearing a singlet. So I usually try to find the most congested place to do that. Maybe Michigan Avenue during Lollapalooza?"

• "Afterward I always eat at one of Kevin Boehm's restaurants, because we went to U of I together and sometimes he gives me free food."