The Moth: This is a True Story edited by Catherine Burns

Taken from the US phenomenon that consists of a single person, standing on a lit stage, telling a true story from their life, these are brave and revealing moments, souls bared to a room of strangers; and now the world, as they are captured in print in this self titled book – a collection of 50 of The Moth’s finest tales, simply transcribed and lightly edited. And what tales they are – a man’s psychological journey after being practically gutted in a New York gang initiation, a young preacher telling the story of Jesus in a Texan biker bar.

Some stories are of significant moments in the wider world – Massimino’s spacewalk, Clinton’s PR; others so personal and introspective – a death-bed wedding, a meaningful shared cigarette between abused women. Yet 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.

This is a wonderful and addictive curated batch of real-life moments, told in a natural language that wrings out every possible human emotion and holds great literary heads no higher than cops or convicts. Each may contain some sort of moral, but they are told too truthfully and skilfully for these to be crudely tacked on.