The Moth
This Is a True Story
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- $10.99
Publisher 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.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
The title of this revelatory collection of real-life stories comes from a New York–based arts organisation that hosts events where people take the stage to share funny, bizarre and moving anecdotes. From the beautiful tale of the impossible love between a renowned astrophysicist and a manic troubadour to a retired policeman’s straightforward account of giving a murder victim’s mother a mugshot to remember him by, The Moth proves that, indeed, the truth is stranger than fiction. Even readers who aren’t typically drawn to non-fiction will be riveted.
