Stories mould who we are, from our character to our cultural identity. They drive us to act out our dreams and ambitions, and shape our politics and beliefs. We use them to construct our relationships, to keep order in our law courts, to interpret events in our newspapers and social media. Storytelling is an essential part of what makes us human.

There have been many attempts to understand what makes a good story – from Joseph Campbell’s well-worn theories about myth and archetype to recent attempts to crack the ‘Bestseller Code’. But few have used a scientific approach. This is curious, for if we are to truly understand storytelling in its grandest sense, we must first come to understand the ultimate storyteller – the human brain.

In this scalpel-sharp, thought-provoking book, Will Storr demonstrates how master storytellers manipulate and compel us, leading us on a journey from the Hebrew scriptures to Mr Men, from Booker Prize-winning literature to box set TV. Applying dazzling psychological research and cutting-edge neuroscience to the foundations of our myths and archetypes, he shows how we can use these tools to tell better stories – and make sense of our chaotic modern world.

故事塑造了我们的身份，从我们的性格到我们的文化身份。它们驱使我们去实现我们的梦想和野心，并塑造我们的政治和信仰。我们用它们来构建我们的关系，在我们的法庭上维持秩序，在我们的报纸和社交媒体上解释事件。讲故事是使我们成为人类的一个重要部分。

已经有很多人试图了解什么是好故事--从约瑟夫-坎贝尔关于神话和原型的陈旧理论到最近试图破解 "畅销书密码 "的尝试。但很少有人使用科学的方法。这很奇怪，因为如果我们要真正理解最伟大意义上的讲故事，我们必须首先了解最终的讲故事者--人类的大脑。

在这本书中，威尔-斯托尔展示了讲故事的高手是如何操纵和蛊惑我们的，带领我们踏上了从希伯来经文到《男人帮》的旅程，从获得布克奖的文学作品到盒装电视。他将令人眼花缭乱的心理学研究和前沿的神经科学应用于我们的神话和原型的基础上，展示了我们如何利用这些工具来讲述更好的故事--并使我们混乱的现代世界变得合理。