Maybe you know him through his storytelling on the radio show This American Life or through his best-selling books, including Me Talk Pretty One Day or Dress Your Family In Corduroy and Denim. Or maybe you’ve read his work in The New Yorker. However you know him, you’re likely to agree that David Sedaris is a unique writer and humorist, who mines his personal life, relationships and family for insightful and often poignant humor about life and the human condition.

Now 63 years old and living in England, Sedaris continues to have family in the US, including a 95-year-old father who resides in a nursing facility in North Carolina and whose health took a precipitous decline in the last couple of years. In fact, in this week’s New Yorker, Sedaris has a piece called “Father Time” about his father’s admission into that facility, and he uses the occasion as a catalyst for examining his own life, aging, as well as his relationship with his partner Hugh and other family members.

Having just sold his writing archive to Yale, which includes his well-known diaries and his handmade private books, David Sedaris has a distinct voice and place in the current literary world, and he may be just the companion we all need as we grow older. If you’re intrigued, pick up a copy of his 2018 best-selling book, Calypso, about which the San Francisco Chronicle said, “He gets you laughing even as he gently turns you toward the darkness we all must face.” There may be no better, or funnier, writer exploring aging today.