Land and Its People: Essays
Land and Its People: Essays
Land and Its People: Essays
Description
Description
"Sedaris is the standard against which all other humor essayists are judged, the overwhelming heavyweight of the genre." --Vulture In his long-awaited new essay collection, David Sedaris reflects on what it means to be a foreigner, a brother, a lifelong friend. He tries on the role of caretaker after his boyfriend Hugh's hip-replacement surgery, and both succeeds and fails. He buys his sister a cape and discusses his brother with a jaded Duolingo bot. He walks dozens of miles with his friend Dawn and challenges her to eat a truck tire. Ever adding to his list of "Countries I Have Been To," he rides a horse named Tequila in Guatemala, buys a bespoke priest's cassock in Vatican City, and goes on safari in Kenya without taking a single photo. There is sadness here--scrolling through his address book, he realizes how many dear friends are now deceased--but also delight: he revels in authors' biographies, the malapropism that becomes a decades-long inside joke, a pair of well-made cotton underpants. He is bitten by a dog and threatened by a wee train passenger. A woman on the street late at night either sexually harasses him or doesn't. Look how hard it is to be alive! Throughout these essays--at once acerbic and tender, playful and profound--Sedaris shows how much there is to marvel at when you keep your head up and your eyes open, observing with warmth and curiosity our fascinating human species and the lands we inhabit.
About the Author
About the Author
David Sedaris is the author of fifteen previous books, including Happy-Go-Lucky, When You Are Engulfed in Flames, and Me Talk Pretty One Day. He is a regular contributor to The New Yorker and BBC Radio 4. In 2019, he was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He is the recipient of the Thurber Prize for American Humor, the Jonathan Swift Prize for Satire and Humor, and the Terry Southern Prize for Humor.
Critical Reviews
Critical Reviews
"It's classic Sedaris: sharp, shameless, and strangely tender."--Oprah Daily
"Dry, sharp, and delightfully observant...It's already on my list of books I suspect I'll read more than once."--Garden & Gun
"A new David Sedaris collection is a publishing event."--Literary Hub
"Sedaris remains a national treasure...In [The Land and Its People] our premier comic essayist does what he does best."--Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"A funny and heartfelt essay collection on friendship, family, and aging...Sedaris's wit and keen awareness of life's absurdities are on full display. These essays are among the best of his career."--Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"With his laconic delivery, Sedaris lures the reader into believing that the topic under discussion might be unremarkable, a you-and-me-in-this-together moment. But then, given Sedaris' worldview and world weariness, eventually a knotty twist or spicy dash is delivered with the realization that Sedaris' land is unparalleled, and its people are peerless. Sedaris fans will be queuing for this, craving new expressions of his signature wit and frankness."--Booklist
Publishing Information
Publishing Information
Publisher:
Little Brown and Company
Pub date:
2026-05-26
Length:
272 pages
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