The Moth Presents All These Wonders: True Stories About Facing the Unknown

by Catherine Burns (Editor), Neil Gaiman (Foreword by)

Overview

“Wonderful." —Michiko Kakutani, New York Times

Celebrating the 20th anniversary of storytelling phenomenon The Moth, 45 unforgettable true stories about risk, courage, and facing the unknown, drawn from the best ever told on their stages

Carefully selected by the creative minds at The Moth, and adapted to the page to preserve the raw energy of live storytelling, All These Wonders features voices both familiar and new. Alongside Meg Wolitzer, John Turturro, Tig Notaro, and Hasan Minhaj, readers will encounter: an astronomer gazing at the surface of Pluto for the first time, an Afghan refugee learning how much her father sacrificed to save their family, a hip-hop star coming to terms with being a “one-hit wonder,” a young female spy risking everything as part of Churchill’s “secret army” during World War II, and more.

High-school student and neuroscientist alike, the storytellers share their ventures into uncharted territory—and how their lives were changed indelibly by what they discovered there. With passion, and humor, they encourage us all to be more open, vulnerable, and alive.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781101904404
Publisher:	Crown Publishing Group
Publication date:	03/21/2017
Series:	The Moth Presents , #1
Pages:	352
Sales rank:	71,950
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 7.70(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

THE MOTH is an acclaimed not-for-profit organization dedicated to the art and craft of storytelling. Inspired by friends telling stories on a small-town Georgia porch, The Moth garnered a cult following in New York City, and then rose to international acclaim with the wildly popular podcast and Peabody Award–winning weekly public radio show The Moth Radio Hour (produced by Jay Allison and presented by PRX.) The Moth is a celebration of both the raconteur, who breathes fire into true tales of ordinary life, and the storytelling novice, who has lived through something extraordinary and yearns to share it. At the center of each performance is the story, and The Moth's directors work with each storyteller to find, shape, and present it. Since its launch in 1997, The Moth has presented tens of thousands of stories, told live and without notes, to standing-room-only crowds worldwide. The Moth received a 2012 MacArthur Award for Creative and Effective Institutions, and The Moth: 50 True Stories (Hachette) was an international best seller. themoth.org

Read an Excerpt

MY GRANDFATHER’S SHOES Christian Garland
(Continues…)

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Excerpted from "The Moth Presents All These Wonders"
by .
Copyright © 2017 Catherine Burns.
Excerpted by permission of Crown/Archetype.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

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Editorial Reviews

A wonderful new book, The Moth Presents All These Wonders…gathers 45 stories from the last two decades. Some are heartbreakingly sad; some laugh-out-loud funny; some momentous and tragic; almost all of them resonant or surprising. They are stories that attest to the startling varieties and travails of human experience, and the shared threads of love, loss, fear and kindness that connect us…The stories here, for the most part, have translated seamlessly to the page. Though they are all relatively short—average Moth performances range from five minutes to 12 minutes—most possess a remarkable emotional depth and sincerity. The stories vary greatly in tone and voice—by turns, raw, wry, rueful, comic, elliptical and confiding—but there is little sarcasm or snark. The emphasis is on communicating with the audience, with sharing an experience, a memory, a moment of grace.

The New York Times - Michiko Kakutani

NATIONAL BESTSELLER

“Some [stories] are heartbreakingly sad; some laugh-out-loud funny; some momentous and tragic; almost all of them resonant or surprising. They are stories that attest to the startling varieties and travails of human experience, and the shared threads of love, loss, fear and kindness that connect us."
—Michiko Kakutani, New York Times

"All These Wonders is replete with wondrous true stories of loves, losses, rerouted dreams, and existential crises of nearly every unsugarcoated flavor."
—Maria Popova, Brain Pickings

“[The Moth] has this indescribable energy that comes with people allowing themselves to be honest without fear. Translated to the page, this book…really becomes an incredible syllabus of vulnerability, one that invites you to cherry pick and re-read stories as you need them.”
—Goop (16 Great Reads for the Summer)

“All These Wonders is a compelling read, by turns uplifting, heartbreaking, and ultimately redemptive. If there is a real hero of the book, it is surely the human spirit, which, time and again, transcends whatever life throws at it.”
—Daily Mail

"The stories are gripping, insightful, addictive.... [It's] hard not to laugh, cry, or be a little moved by each one."
—Toronto Star

“All These Wonders is divided into seven expertly curated chapters. The effect is an anthology of seven Mainstage shows, averaging six stories per show. Each juxtaposes sensational stories by famous names...with those by relatively unknown storytellers, whose narratives, quite often, deliver the biggest emotional punches.”
—Megan Labrise, Kirkus Reviews

“All These Wonders is a journey through the mysteries of the unexpected.... Every tale is its own surprising glimpse into the human story.”
—Mary Elizabeth Williams, Salon

"The Moth's 20-year retrospective contains all the hope, sadness, triumphs, and tribulations that have defined the pioneering live reading series since its modest debut in 1997.... Overall, the two decades of the Moth remain as entertaining and powerful off-stage as they were onstage." 
—Kirkus Reviews

"[The stories] are all arresting tales."
—Buffalo News (Editor's Choice)

"[The Moth is] New York's hottest and hippest literary ticket." 
—Wall Street Journal

From the Publisher

2016-12-19
The Moth's 20-year retrospective contains all the hope, sadness, triumphs, and tribulations that have defined the pioneering live reading series since its modest debut in 1997.Devoted fans of The Moth Radio Hour know that the true stories told live onstage without notes in venues located throughout the world consistently pack an emotional wallop. It's refreshing to see that those same stories are almost as powerful in print as they are in person. For instance, the story of a child soldier from Sierra Leone casually besting his New York City pals in a teenage game of paintball is almost as hilarious and heartbreaking as if author Ishmael Beah were in the room telling you the tale himself. Christof Koch's stirring memoir about his time working with famed scientist Francis Crick right before his death is no less impactful on paper. Similarly, Nadia Bolz-Weber's account of her life-changing experience on the road to Jericho ably conveys the intensity of the panic attack that taught her how to be vulnerable around her fellow travelers ("twenty Super-Nice Lutherans from Wisconsin"). Some stories—e.g., Tig Notaro's "R2, Where Are You?"—do lose a little something being restricted to the page, but that likely has more to do with editing for space than a missed performance. Other stories, like Tomi Reichental's absolutely shattering account of how she narrowly escaped death at the infamous Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, actually benefit from the buffer the written word provides. Other contributors include Louis C.K., Adam Mansbach, Jane Green, John Turturro, Jessi Klein, Meg Wolitzer, and Gil Reyes. Overall, the two decades of the Moth remain as entertaining and powerful off-stage as they were onstage. As Neil Gaiman writes in his foreword, "the Moth teaches us not to judge by appearances. It teaches us to listen. It reminds us to empathize." Here's to at least 20 more years.

Kirkus Reviews