A thousand glimpses of humanity - six words at a time.

Hemingway was once bet that he couldn't produce a story in just six words. He wrote 'For sale: baby shoes, never worn.' He won the bet.

But if an entire story can be told in just six words, can the same be said of an entire life?

The answer, according to this addictively readable collection of mini-memoirs, is yes. In these short, sharp tales of tragedy and triumph, bittersweet romance and stinging regret, all of life is packed into half a dozen words. From A. L. Kennedy and Aimee Mann to amateur writers around the world, everyone, it seems, has a six-word story to tell. The results are moving, hilarious, revealing and defiant - an endlessly fascinating testimony to the breadth and variety of human experience.