Author Guide · Comedy Memoir
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Sarah Silverman has written one book, and it has had an unusually long life. The Bedwetter: Stories of Courage, Redemption, and Pee (2010) is a memoir by the comedian behind Jesus Is Magic (2005) and The Sarah Silverman Program; her own reading of it was nominated for a Grammy for Best Spoken Word Album. In 2022 it became an off-Broadway musical at the Atlantic Theater Company, and in July 2023 it was one of the books at the centre of her copyright lawsuits against OpenAI and Meta. This guide covers her one book: what it is about and where to begin.
By Lisanne Swart · 1 key books · 2010–2010 · Updated October 2026
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Quick answer
Sarah Silverman’s only book is The Bedwetter: Stories of Courage, Redemption, and Pee (2010), a memoir about her childhood bedwetting and her life in comedy. Read it, or listen to her Grammy-nominated audiobook; it was later adapted into an off-Broadway musical (2022).
Where to Start with Sarah Silverman
If you want her life story
→ The Bedwetter (2010) — her only book.
If you want to hear it in her voice
→ The Bedwetter (2010) — the audiobook, nominated for a Grammy.
1 Sarah Silverman Book
The Bedwetter
A memoir published in April 2010, built around a childhood problem she kept secret: wetting the bed well past the usual age. From there it follows her growing up in New Hampshire and her career in stand-up and television. Her audiobook reading was nominated for the 2011 Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album, and the book became an off-Broadway musical in 2022.
How to Read Sarah Silverman
There is only one book, so the choice is format. The audiobook is read by Silverman herself and was nominated for a Grammy; the print edition is the version the 2022 musical adapted.
If you want more after the book, her comedy special Jesus Is Magic (2005) and The Sarah Silverman Podcast, launched in October 2020, are the closest things to a sequel.
A reading path
1. The Bedwetter (2010), in print or the audiobook she narrates
2. The Bedwetter, the musical (Atlantic Theater Company, 2022)
The years · 1970–2025
Quick facts about Sarah Silverman
- Known for
- Deadpan, deliberately offensive stand-up, The Sarah Silverman Program on Comedy Central and the voice of Vanellope von Schweetz in Wreck-It Ralph.
- 1970
- Born in Concord, New Hampshire
- 2005
- Jesus Is Magic
- 2010
- The Bedwetter
- 2025
- Netflix special Postmortem
- Born
- Sarah Kate Silverman, 1 December 1970, Concord, New Hampshire
- Television
- The Sarah Silverman Program, Comedy Central, 2007–2010
- Emmys
- 2008 for the song “I’m F**king Matt Damon”; 2014 for writing We Are Miracles
- Film voice
- Vanellope von Schweetz in Wreck-It Ralph (2012) and Ralph Breaks the Internet (2018)
- Book
- The Bedwetter (2010); audiobook nominated for a 2011 Grammy
- Stage
- The Bedwetter musical, Atlantic Theater Company, 2022
The red mark is 2010: The Bedwetter, her only book.
How Sarah Silverman Writes: The Joke and the Secret
The Bedwetter starts from the kind of material most memoirs leave out. The title names a childhood secret, and the book treats it the way her stand-up treats taboo subjects: said plainly, and played for laughs.
The subtitle, Stories of Courage, Redemption, and Pee, sets the tone. It borrows the language of the inspirational memoir and undercuts it with the last word, which is the mix the book keeps: real childhood difficulty, told as comedy.
The book has been reworked twice in her own voice: once as the audiobook she narrates, which was nominated for a Grammy, and once as the 2022 musical, for which she wrote the book with Joshua Harmon and the lyrics with Adam Schlesinger.
Watch
Sarah Silverman on The Bedwetter
Sarah Silverman talks to NBC’s TODAY in 2022 about turning her memoir The Bedwetter into a musical.
Frequently asked questions about Sarah Silverman’s book
How many books has Sarah Silverman written?
One: The Bedwetter: Stories of Courage, Redemption, and Pee (2010).
How many books has Sarah Silverman written?
There is only one, The Bedwetter, published in April 2010.
Where should I start with Sarah Silverman?
With The Bedwetter, in print or as the audiobook she reads herself.
What is Sarah Silverman’s most famous book?
The Bedwetter (2010), her memoir and so far her only book.
Did Sarah Silverman write The Bedwetter herself?
It is published under her name alone, and no co-writer is credited.
Is The Bedwetter audiobook read by Sarah Silverman?
Yes. Her reading was nominated for the 2011 Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album.
Is there a Bedwetter musical?
Yes. The Bedwetter ran off-Broadway at the Atlantic Theater Company’s Linda Gross Theater from 30 April (previews) to 10 July 2022, directed by Anne Kauffman. Silverman wrote the book with Joshua Harmon and the lyrics with Adam Schlesinger, who wrote the music; after Schlesinger’s death in 2020, David Yazbek contributed additional material.
Why did Sarah Silverman sue OpenAI and Meta?
In July 2023 Silverman and two other authors sued OpenAI and Meta, alleging that ChatGPT and Meta’s LLaMA models were trained on their books, including The Bedwetter, without permission or payment, and that the books came from an illegal source. In February 2024 a federal court dismissed part of the claims against OpenAI, and in 2025 a federal judge ruled in Meta’s favour on fair use.
Has Sarah Silverman been involved in controversies?
Yes, over her comedy rather than her book. The most discussed is a 2007 episode of The Sarah Silverman Program in which her character wore blackface; in 2019 she said a resurfaced still from it had cost her a film role. In 2001 she was also criticised for using an ethnic slur ironically on Late Night with Conan O’Brien.
Footnotes
- Sarah Silverman — Wikipedia
- The Bedwetter — Wikipedia
- The Bedwetter completes its run off-Broadway July 10 — Playbill
- Sarah Silverman OpenAI lawsuit partially dismissed — Digital Music News, 2024
- Judge rejects authors’ claim that Meta AI training violated copyrights — Variety, 2025
Bibliography last verified 9 October 2026. Where sources give different first-publication years, this page uses the year in library catalogues or the publisher’s own record.
This list was not put together by a machine.
The notes are all mine,
and the books are all his.
Lisanne x
Written by Lisanne Swart, who has curated reading lists and author guides at lisanneswart.com since 2021.
See more on her personal bookshelf.
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