When You Are Engulfed in Flames

David Sedaris's remarkable ability to uncover the hilarious absurdity teeming just below the surface of everyday life is elevated to wilder and more entertaining heights than ever in this new book of essays. Sedaris proceeds from the bizarre conundrums of daily life - the proper etiquette to follow when a lozenge falls from your mouth into the lap of a fellow airplane passenger or how to use LP covers to soundproof your windows against neurotic songbirds - to the most deeply resonant human truths. Taking in the parasitic worm that once lived in his mother-in-law's leg, an encounter with a dingo, and the purchase of a human skeleton, and culminating in a brilliant account of his attempt to quit smoking - in Tokyo - David Sedaris's sixth collection is a fresh masterpiece of comic writing. (back cover)