'[This book's ambition is] to give the reader a sense of how important it is to come together in a new understanding of the power and the paradox of stories. If we can do this, I believe we will be able to understand how the contradictions that are part of the art of storytelling are also part of the nature of our lives and our conflicts over land ...'

Stories come in many forms, from nursery rhymes and national anthems to poems and praise songs, and from the stories of science to the rituals of religion. They tell us where we come from, and where we belong; how to live and sometimes how to die. They hold us together, and they keep us apart. And all of them bring reality and the imagination together in what J. Edward Chamberlin calls a ceremony of belief.
Drawing on his experiences in Africa, Australia, Europe and North America, Chamberlin takes the reader on an absorbing journey through communities and cultures around the world.