The Most Wonderful Story in the World

The audiobook includes five short stories by English writer Rudyard Kipling.

The hero of the story that gave the collection its title, Charlie Mears, without even realizing it, sees in his dreams one of his past lives—the life of a Greek slave, a rower on a ship. He tells the writer about his dreams, and the writer creates, based on these stories, the strangest tale in the world…

Young Lieutenant John Chinn, the hero of “His Ancestors’ Grave,” joined a regiment in India, where his father died, and must take command of the unruly natives.

“The Burying Folk” also takes place in India. Megger the crocodile lived a long life, and even the village where he lives is named after him—he has long become a local deity who regularly takes his victim. And he tells other gravediggers—shakal and a marabou bird—about this life… and also about a dream to meet, one day, the prey he once missed.

In the ironic story “The True Event,” three journalists—the only passengers aboard a little mail steamer—witness an incredible happening: an encounter with a sea serpent.

The collection ends with “On Hunger.” During the “Hunger Act” in India, Mr. Scott and Miss Williams help the local population cope with famine and fever, and they don’t notice how they fall in love with each other.