The Moth

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 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 a 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 - and all, amazingly, true - stories range from the poignant to the downright hilarious.