For more than twenty-five years, David Sedaris has been carving out a unique literary space. A Sedaris story may seem confessional, but is also highly attuned to the world outside. It opens our eyes to what is at absurd and moving about our daily existence.

And it is almost impossible to read without laughing.

Now, for the first time collected in one volume, the author brings us his funniest and most memorable work. In these stories, Sedaris shops for rare taxidermy, hitchhikes with a lady quadriplegic, and spits a lozenge into a fellow travelers lap. He drowns a mouse in a bucket, struggles to say ';give it to me' in five languages, and hand-feeds a carnivorous bird.

But if all you expect to find in Sedariss work is the deft and sharply observed comedy for which he became renowned, you may be surprised to discover that his words bring more warmth than mockery.

Nowhere is this clearer than in his writing about his loved ones. Here, Sedaris explores falling in love and staying together, recognizing his own aging not in the mirror but in the faces of his siblings, losing one parent and coming to termsat long lastwith the other.

Full of joy, generosity, and the incisive humor that has led David Sedaris to be called ';the funniest man alive' (Time Out New York), The Best of Me spans a career spent watching and learning and laughingquite often at himselfand invites readers deep into the world of one of the most brilliant and original writers of our time.