The Land And Its People by David Sedaris came out in May 2026, and in my opinion the only way to enjoy his entertaining essays and reflections on life is to listen to the man himself on audiobook. This latest offering was recorded live between November 2024 - February 2026 with the majority of the essays recorded in January and February of this year.
I had the pleasure of seeing David Sedaris live in Melbourne in February 2025, and it was there that I heard his work entitled Goodyear (about his close friend Dawn and a tyre) and Good Grief (about the chemo cape). It's possible we were also treated to My Finances in Brief and the essay titled And Your Little Dog Too contained in this collection.
I later learned that Sedaris read from draft and unpublished essays during the Melbourne performance I attended so I guess it's a matter of course for these works to feature in a book at some point. I'll admit being a little disappointed to find so much overlap and decided I'm happy to wait for his next book instead of going to see him again in Melbourne in January 2027.
In The Land And Its People, I enjoyed the Care and Feeding essay where Sedaris recounts his experience as a carer for his husband Hugh following his hip replacement surgery and while I believe he also performed this in Melbourne it could have changed a little since then and I didn't mind hearing it again.
The author's obsession with Duolingo and the unique way he interacts with the language bot was new to me and very entertaining. When living in France with Hugh, David spent years learning French and studies other languages including German, Japanese and Spanish and 'has' to Duolingo every day. I share his love of word play but the way he interacts with AI makes me wonder whether he does it purely for his own enjoyment or with the additional knowledge that it also happens to make for a terrific story.
My favourite chapter was Enough is Enough with plenty of relatable and chuckle worthy moments and I also loved Punching Down, eliciting much mirth when I listened to it again with my husband.
The Land And Its People is the latest book by David Sedaris, and while I've read and reviewed seven others - see the list below - I still haven't read all of his work. Give me time though, I don't think I'll ever tire of his droll sense of humour and satirical observations delivered in his inimitable style of storytelling.
Other titles I've read and reviewed by David Sedaris (in the order I read them), include:
Carpe Librum!
