One Evening, a Stranger: Alcoholics Anonymous, The Divine Comedy, and the Power of Storytelling

One evening in May 1935 Dante Alighieri, the medieval Italian poet, walks into the lobby of the Mayflower Hotel in Akron, Ohio after his long journey through hell, purgatory, and heaven. He sits down in a chair next to Bill Wilson who is fighting an impulse to drink over a failed business deal and thus lose his six months of hard-won sobriety. One Evening, a Stranger is a work of fantasy that depicts a conversation between Bill and Dante in which they share their personal stories with each other and increasingly discover the parallels between their lives. Inspired by his conversation with Dante, Bill not only escapes his desire to drink that evening, but actually begins to conceive of some of the basic principles of Alcoholics Anonymous. The readers of this book, by witnessing the power of storytelling, will see that journeys of spiritual transformation are sought by all humans whatever 'dark wood' they find themselves in and whatever time in their life they awaken.