An Evening with David Sedaris

Für die Los Angeles Times ist er der “champion storyteller”, der Meister des Geschichtenerzählens. Seine Agentur nennt ihn zu Recht “one of America’s pre-eminent humor writers. He is a master of satire and one of today’s most observant writers.”

Für uns ist er inzwischen ein guter Freund des Hauses, viele Male durften wir diese seine besondere Kunst in unserem Saal erleben, und es scheint, als hätte es ihm immer mindestens so viel Spaß gemacht wie unserem Publikum. Wir wollen die lieb gewonnene Tradition eines David-Sedaris-Abends im Gartenbaukino nicht abreißen lassen. Aber diesmal nicht im Herbst, sondern im Frühjahr.

Und so können wir jetzt schon einen weiteren “Evening with David Sedaris” ankündigen, bei dem der internationale Bestseller-Autor aus seinem neuen Buch lesen wird, THE LAND AND ITS PEOPLE, das Ende Mai 2026 in den USA erschienen ist und im Februar 2027 bei uns auf den Markt kommt.

In THE LAND AND ITS PEOPLE, his first new collection since HAPPY-GO-LUCKY, David Sedaris reflects on what it means to be a foreigner, a brother, a lifelong friend. He tries on the role of caretaker after his boyfriend Hugh’s hip-replacement surgery, and both succeeds and fails. He buys his sister a cape and discusses his brother with a jaded Duolingo bot. He walks dozens of miles with his friend Dawn and challenges her to eat a truck tire. Ever adding to his list of “Countries I Have Been To,” he rides a horse named Tequila in Guatemala, buys a bespoke priest’s cassock in Vatican City, and goes on safari in Kenya without taking a single photo.

There is sadness here — scrolling through his address book, he realizes how many dear friends are now deceased — but also delight: he revels in authors’ biographies, the malapropism that becomes a decades-long inside joke, and pair of well-made cotton underpants. He is bitten by a dog. A train passenger vomits in his face. A woman on the street late at night either sexually harasses him or doesn’t. Look how hard it is to be alive!

Throughout these essays — at once acerbic and tender, playful and profound — Sedaris shows how much there is to marvel at when you keep your head up and your eyes open, observing with warmth and curiosity this fascinating human species and the lands we inhabit.