Calypso

David Sedaris Little Brown. Out Thursday

Prepare to howl with laughter at the US writer’s new collection of essays centred around his eccentric family. Now well into middle-age, he buys a holiday home to bring together his elderly father and siblings, and reflects on the losses of his troubled sister and his beloved mother. The observational humour is dazzling – stand-out moments include a shopping trip in Japan, his obsession with his Fitbit, and his highly unusual method of disposing of a benign tumour. Fearlessly self aware, achingly sad and painfully funny – his best book yet.