‘The Moth Presents Occasional Magic’: True stories of everyday bravery that will leave you asking for more

The Moth Presents: Occasional Magic

True Stories About Defying the Impossible

Edited by Catherine Burns

Crown Archetype. 248 pp. $25

Reviewed by Holly Collier Willmarth

(Minneapolis) Star Tribune

I wasn’t familiar with the Moth podcast’s brand of live storytelling when I opened this collection, but now I’m a convert. Even without the audience and the stage, the 47 brief stories pulse with energy and vulnerability. There are some well-known names along with new voices, sharing stories of bravery from all over the world. I told myself to savor the pages, but instead I raced through them, like a child at bedtime. Just one more story. Just one more.

A dental-school resident tells of being held hostage by rebels at a hospital in Colombia, forced to treat a dangerously infected boy — with no anesthesia, little experience, and at the point of a rifle. A lonely Jehovah’s Witness describes venturing outside the church’s rules (and onto Tinder) to find a partner. South Sudanese refugees recount settling in Maine. They misunderstood the instructions about the fire alarm and fled their apartment at the sound of the doorbell. A Macalester English professor describes keeping a secret, dangerous cache of books as a child during China’s Cultural Revolution and learning the power of storytelling when they were destroyed.

That magical power is more than occasional in this collection, and the book would make a great gift, perhaps even whetting the appetites of reluctant readers for one more story of bravery. Just one more.

Holly Collier Willmarth wrote this review for the (Minneapolis) Star Tribune.