The Moth: This Is a True Story

The Moth: This Is a True Story

by NeilGaiman (Introduction), Catherine Burns (Editor)

Synopsis

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.

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More Information

Format: Paperback
Pages: 400
Edition: Main
Publisher: Serpent's Tail
Published: 07 Aug 2014

ISBN 10: 1846689899
ISBN 13: 9781846689895
Book Overview: Pull up an easy chair and settle into the most spell-binding collection of real stories you will ever read.

Media Reviews
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 *
They feel like sermons from some post-religious church, concrete manifestation of the message that people are good or that life is short. -- Olivia Laing * The Guardian *
This collection gives truth to the adage that fact is far stranger - and sometimes, more engaging - than fiction. -- Sam Baker * www.harpersbazaar.co.uk *
These are 50 stories of exceptional calibre, the kind that you only hear if the teller is close enough, or brave enough, or drunk enough; and best of all they're funny/sad/weird/heartbreaking because they're true. -- Miranda Collinge * Esquire *
Rich, affecting ... The range is remarkable ... What it shows is that everybody has a story worth telling. Long may The Moth continue -- Orlando Bird * Financial Times *
This rich, affecting book brings together the best acts since the project began in 1997 ... The range is remarkable ... What it shows is that everybody has a story worth telling. Long may The Moth continue * Financial Times *
Author Bio
The Moth is an acclaimed not-for-profit organisation dedicated to the art and craft of storytelling. Since its launch in 1997, The Moth has presented thousands of stories, told live and without notes, to standing-room-only crowds worldwide. Moth shows are renowned for the great range of human experience they showcase.