Calypso

If you've ever laughed your way through David Sedaris' 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 realisation: 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.

This is beach reading for people who detest beaches, required reading for those who loathe small talk and love a good tumour joke. As the Independent writes, ‘Sedaris’s genius is that he spins narrative – and not just any old narrative, which in itself is an achievement, but narrative that’s in turn both hilarious and moving – out of his ordinary everyday existence’. Calypso is simultaneously Sedaris's darkest and warmest book yet - and it just might be his very best.