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Calypso

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What to expect

'Unquestionably the king of comic writing . . . Calypso is both funnier and more heartbreaking than pretty much anything out there' Hadley Freeman, Guardian

A New York Times Notable Book of 2018

If you've ever laughed your way through David Sedaris's cheerfully misanthropic stories, you might think you know what you're getting with Calypso. You'd be wrong.

When he buys a beach house on the Carolina coast, Sedaris envisions long, relaxing vacations spent playing board games and lounging in the sun with those he loves most. And life at the Sea Section, as he names the vacation home, is exactly as idyllic as he imagined, except for one tiny, vexing realization: it's impossible to take a vacation from yourself.

With Calypso, Sedaris sets his formidable powers of observation toward middle age and mortality. Make no mistake: these stories are very, very funny - it's a book that can make you laugh 'til you snort, the way only family can. Sedaris's writing has never been sharper, and his ability to shock readers into laughter unparalleled. But much of the comedy here is born out of that vertiginous moment when your own body betrays you and you realize that the story of your life is made up of more past than future.

This is beach reading for people who detest beaches, required reading for those who loathe small talk and love a good tumour joke. Calypso is simultaneously Sedaris's darkest and warmest book yet - and it just might be his very best.

Critics Review

Unquestionably the king of comic writing . . . Calypso is both funnier and more heartbreaking than pretty much anything out there
Guardian
We get more of a glimpse than we have before of what lies behind the carapace of a writer who seems able to turn almost any situation to comic gold . . . [an] incredibly funny and sometimes moving meditation on love, death and family life, by a master of his craft
Sunday Times
Entrancing . . . This book allows us to observed not just the nimble-mouthed elf of his previous work, but a man in his seventh decade expunging his darker secrets and contemplating mortality . . . The brilliance of David Sedaris's writing is that his very essence, his aura, seeps through the pages of his books like an intoxicating cloud, mesmerising us so that his logic becomes ours
New York Times
Calypso is another triumph from the dinner-table raconteur we all wish we could be, a writer whose lightness of touch makes you confront the hardest of truths - and laugh out loud
Esquire
Hilarious and moving . . . Sedaris may well be the master of the deadpan delivery - there's plenty of laughing out loud while you read. But Calypso is also a tender portrait of a family, flawed - like any other - but doing their best to love each other
Independent
This is a darker, deeper David Sedaris writing about his sister's suicide, the inevitability of ageing and how it's impossible to take a vacation away from yourself, but, rest assured, he's still one of the funniest, most perceptive
writers alive
Red
Although Sedaris is famous for being funny, he does pain heartbreakingly well. His observations are wry and witty and eye-wateringly honest and you'll be so sad when it's over
Evening Standard
First-rate comedy gold . . . For Sedaris, the boundary between light and dark is blurred. Life's pain and humiliation coexist in every living moment with its jollity and deliciousness. Which elevates his musings on the bodily and social travails of being a man in late middle age to a level of seriously sublime silliness. As ever, Sedaris's irreverent writing is a serious joy; this collection is a must for anyone with a strong stomach who needs a laugh
The Times
Heartbreak and hilarity collide . . . [Calypso] captures the surrealism of the mundane and the funny old thing we like to call life
Attitude
The American humourist's latest collection of pieces, about life's strange twists and turns, will have you shrieking with laughter and also, possibly, just shrieking
Mail on Sunday
From malformed turtles to his FitBit obsession, this is comic art in motion. Be warned though: we picked up one Sedaris book and two weeks later we'd finished his entire output
Emerald Street
Firmly grounded in the present, but with the same sense of twisted nostalgia that has always marked his best work
Mail Online
David Sedaris - a sort of wicked Alan Bennett - is one of the funniest writers at work today
The Times
Really, really fabulous
RuPaul
David Sedaris had the whole Vogue office cry-laughing with his latest collection, Calypso, in which the notorious funny man chronicles his family's (mis)adventures at his new beach house, Sea Section. His reflections, on everything from the joys of shopping in Dover Street Market to the tyranny of his Fitbit, are the perfect tonic to the news cycle
Vogue
There are few writers as gloriously strange, acerbic, funny and faintly ruthless as Sedaris
Independent
The king of the humorous essay... Sedaris fans will find plenty of familiar delights: His misanthropic charms and wry wit are as delightful as ever, even if some of the subject matter has changed
New York Magazine
His observations feel sharper and often darker than in previous collections, as he ponders the inevitable breakdown of the human body, the shame attendant with illness and age, the nature of addiction, and the eccentricities of his family. Though middle age may have made his shades of grey blacker, the wit and incisiveness that make Sedaris much-adored remain
Harper's Bazaar
Honest, reflective, and even tender... Eloquent and silly, Sedaris' collection could probably find unshakable life even in the dust kitties under the bed... He gets you laughing even as he gently turns you toward the darkness we all must face
San Francisco Chronicle
David Sedaris' new essay collection is the sharpest retort to anyone who thinks they know what our favorite curmudgeonly humorist will be up to next. His charming observational humor is still the engine, but there's nothing frivolous about it... Sedaris grapples poignantly and satisfyingly (and yes, often hilariously) with death, the aging body, and just how far the bonds of family can stretch
Conde Nast Traveller
Sedaris demonstrates yet again what makes him the best American humorist writing today: a remarkable ability to combine the personal with the political, the mundane with the profane, slime with sublime, and hilarity with heart
NPR
David Sedaris's essays marry meditations on family, suicide, grief and mortality with the hazards of bodily functions and frequent travel for his massively popular public readings. Sedaris is as much standup comic as writer, making this a great audio and one for the car journey
Guardian
Author David Sedaris
Narrator David Sedaris
Duration 6 hours and 39 minutes
Release Date
ISBN 9781405534741
Format x-book®
Publisher Little, Brown Book Group
Genre Autobiography: arts and entertainment, Autobiography: general
Availability AU, GB, IE

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