For forty years, David Sedaris has kept a diary in which he records everything that captures his attention-overheard comments, salacious gossip, soap opera plot twists, secrets confided by total strangers. These observations are the source code for his finest work, and through them he has honed his cunning, surprising sentences. Praise for Theft By Finding The writing here is funnier, (even) sharper . . .

There isn't a dull word among these pages (India Knight Sunday Times)Could there be a more delightful American import than the memoirist David Sedaris? Not since the peanut butter and jelly sandwich have we inherited something so sweet and comforting yet so wickedly naughty (The Times)This first of two volumes of his copious diaries takes us from 1977 to 2002, and sees him grow from a despondent21-year-old in menial jobs into the man recognised as possibly the best humorist of the 2000s(Daily Telegraph, Best Books Under the Sun, Summer 2017)So often Sedaris's phrasing is beautiful in its piquancy and minima