The Moth - Softcover

"Passionate . . . brilliant, and quietly addictive."--The London Guardian

"[In this book] the stories not only maintain their oral integrity but also take on new dimensions, allowing you to ponder a turn of events or to swirl the language around in your head without missing the next part of the story."--David Vecsey, NYTimes.com "The 6th Floor" blog

"When I started to read the new collection 'The Moth: 50 True Stories, ' [the storytellers'] distinctive voices turned on my audio button. It felt as if they had channeled these stories to me."--Elizabeth Taylor, Chicago Tribune "Editor's Choice"

"Burns, artistic director of the award-winning The Moth Radio Hour, frees stories whetted for a live audience onto the page, proving the richness of great storytelling: that one can gain as much as a member of an audience communally cringing, laughing and weeping, as a reader privately surrendering to the complicity of human experience."--Publishers Weekly

For the first time in print, celebrated storytelling phenomenon The Moth presents fifty spellbinding, soul-bearing stories selected from their extensive archive (fifteen-plus years and 10,000-plus stories strong). Inspired by friends telling stories on a porch, The Moth was born in small-town Georgia, garnered a cult following in New York City, and then rose to national acclaim with the wildly popular podcast and Peabody Award-winning weekly public radio show The Moth Radio Hour.

Stories include: writer Malcolm Gladwell's wedding toast gone horribly awry; legendary rapper Darryl "DMC" McDaniels' obsession with a Sarah McLachlan song; poker champion Annie Duke's two-million-dollar hand; and A. E. Hotchner's death-defying stint in a bullring . . . with his friend Ernest Hemingway. Read about the panic of former Clinton Press Secretary Joe Lockhart when he misses Air Force One after a hard night of drinking in Moscow, and Dr. George Lombardi's fight to save Mother Teresa's life.

This will be a beloved read for existing Moth enthusiasts, fans of the featured storytellers, and all who savor well-told, hilarious, and heartbreaking stories.