"This remarkable book builds on Chomsky's key insight that language provides an inbuilt key to our identity as a symbol using species. To the role of grammar as a cognitive tool enabling us to construct 'selves', Nair adds a second tool in the realm of discourse: narrative. She has a wonderfully subtle account of the psychology of narrative as a 'species of natural theory'. Nair's work is not yet very well known in the United States but I anticipate that with this book she will be recognized as a major figure."--Stephen Greenblatt, Harvard University "Nair's brilliant study of narrative combines anthropological and sociolinguistic perspectives with cognitive ones to bring out the magical impulses that animate this genre."--Michael J. Toolan, University of Birmingham, author of Narrative: A Critical Linguistic Introduction