A terrific blend of the timeless and the modern. . . .an in-depth exploration of human psychology. . . .a blend of the comforts of the oral storytelling tradition with the rigor of the modern analytic approach -- sometimes heady, sometimes contemplative. . . .a bold blend of storytelling traditions and psychological explorations. --The Star Tribune

In More Than True, Robert Bly takes us down in his critical diving bell through the fathoms of Jung and Freud then deeper still into his own poetic configuring of these mythic tales. The result of the exploration is a refreshened, multivalent view or some of our culture's fundamental stories registered in the distinctive voice of a most compelling poet. --Billy Collins

A great poet observes a complex combination of seemingly random unconnected events and reveals their distilled essence. From the agricultural ditches of snowy Minnesota to the dense forests of fairy tales, Robert has opened my mind time and again to the beauty of this life. Here again, I have to lie down and sleep after reading just one of his reflections on an old story. Sometimes only a dream will digest a great piece of writing. Thank you, Robert. --Mark Rylance, actor

"Robert Bly's More Than True has elements of both a guidebook and a spiritual autobiography, and its shrewd commentary on six stories takes us to the heart of several luminous truths that can come alive only in narratives. This book is wise and beguiling, a testament to years of thought." --Charles Baxter

Robert Bly's marvelous, wide-ranging adventures in poetry and prose are always fighting off what he calls 'the dictatorship of the ego, ' and here he mines six fairy tales for their inner depths, their deep wisdom, and carries back what he knows about Union and Separation, grief and sweetness. More Than True is daring, strange, and exalted. --Edward Hirsch

"A wonderful, thought-provoking book. Bly's speculative, poetic musings on the hidden meaning of these messages from our distant ancestors throw up even more questions; just like a great poem. Bly gives form and meaning to hidden half-realised messages transmitted to us by our distant ancestors through fairy stories. His insights result in such an overwhelming torrent of ideas in the reader that it is best to take it one chapter at a time. Bly's delightful, provocative, musings show that fairy tales are instruction manuals in the struggle to become emotionally alive and the fight against brutalism and authoritarianism." --Barry Miles, author of Call Me Burroughs: A Life

Bly whimsically retells the often idiosyncratic stories in vibrant detail...dissect[ing] their essences with help from the theories of such thinkers as Jung, Kafka, Shelley, and Wang Wei, and he ornaments these ideas with excerpts from his own poems, many never before published...beautiful...[a] gorgeously written book. --Publishers Weekly

Readings by a generous, gifted writer who asks his readers to be open to a story's poetry, its 'light by which we may see life.' --Kirkus Reviews