Book Name: The Best of Tall Tales: True Stories from India’s Longest Running Storytelling Series
Editor: Michael Burns
Genre: Non-fiction
Publisher: Rupa
Rating: 5/5
Book Blurb: The Best of Tall Tales is a collection of first-person, non-fiction short stories curated from the lives of real people. These stories are adapted from the Tall Tales live storytelling show, India’s longest-running live true storytelling event series that has featured thousands of submissions and hundreds of stories told live. These twenty are some of the best of the best. The storytellers in this collection bare their souls, share their inner-most desires, and articulate facing their fears. It’s a one of a kind collection that will leave you laughing one second and crying the next. One story talks about the ups and downs of being Bollywood extra; another takes you into the life of a fortune teller; and yet another shows you the terror of stalking. These true short stories, some of the best that Tall Tales has ever featured, will leave you shocked and inspired. They don’t push just one button-they push all your buttons. And that’s the common thread among all the short stories you’ll read in this book.
What do these stories, have in common? They’re born from deep honesty, which might be the most important ingredient in a great story. Comic stories, scary stories, romantic stories, stories on social justice-they all go from interesting to unforgettable in the hands of Tall Tales.
Everyone has at least one great story. What’s yours?
Review: The Best of Tall Tales are a series of highly personalised and diverse stories penned by ordinary people from different walks of life. Written candidly and edited with precision, they bring to life diverse voices from all over India.
The best stories are always ordinary tales and this is a remarkable concept brought to life by tall tales. The stories re drawn from real life experiences and told exceptionally well. The editor deserves applause as the stories have not been written by professional writers so editing it must have been a mammoth task but its been done flawlessly and there are hardly any errors.
The stories cover many diverse areas. So you have stories about sibling relationships, marital alliances, about tea, about startups and people struggling to make a living. they cover almost everything. It is difficult to pick one best from a collection that has near perfect tales but Catdog by Alisha Parekh is a heart wrenching account and our personal favourite.
“We are born and we will die; and that is certain. What story we write in between is our own. It is, after all, the journey that matters- not just the destination.”
Tall Tales is an interesting concept and is open to all. Anybody can submit a tale here. Try it sometime.