Description

With an introduction by Neil Gaiman

Before television and radio, before penny paperbacks and mass literacy, people would gather on porches, on the steps outside their homes, and tell stories. The storytellers knew their craft and bewitched listeners would sit and listen long into the night as moths flitted around overhead. The Moth is a non-profit group that is trying to recapture this lost art, helping storytellers – old hands and novices alike – hone their stories before playing to packed crowds at sold-out live events.

The very best of these stories are collected here: whether it’s Bill Clinton’s hell-raising press secretary or a leading geneticist with a family secret; a doctor whisked away by nuns to Mother Teresa’s bedside or a film director saving her father’s Chinatown store from money-grabbing developers; the Sultan of Brunei’s concubine or a friend of Hemingway’s who accidentally talks himself into a role as a substitute bullfighter, these eccentric, pitch-perfect stories – all, amazingly, true – range from the poignant to the downright hilarious.

Publisher Review

Brilliant and quietly addictive ... crammed with personality ... full of colour and life * Guardian * One of the hottest events in town ... enthralling, funny and moving * The Times * New York's hottest and hippest literary ticket * Wall Street Journal * The stories not only maintain their oral integrity but take on new dimensions, allowing you to ponder a turn of events or swirl the language around in your head without missing the next part of the story * New York Times * While these tales transport us into the lives of others, they also invoke recognition with our own; there are connecting wires with even the most disparate experiences and existences, the 'I's are turned into 'we's. They fulfil our fundamental human need to communicate, learn and grow through others. -- Alan Bett * The List * The Moth is beautifully simple, authentic, a little bit therapeutic and utterly addictive. It is a joyful reminder of the power of the story the need for story-telling and the desire to listen, and to read, deeply. -- Helen Davies * Sunday Times * [the stories] remains very much in the voices of those who spoke them and thus retain the vulnerability and rawness inherent in the situation of one person, alone at the mic, telling a room full of strangers something personal. -- Hermione Hoby * The Observer *