Based on a True Story: A Memoir

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER Driving, wild and hilarious (The Washington Post), here is the incredible memoir of the actor, gambler, raconteur, and Saturday Night Live veteran.

Dont miss Norms new Netflix special, Hitlers Dog, Gossip & Treachery!

When Norm Macdonald, one of the greatest stand-up comics of all time, was approached to write a celebrity memoir, he flatly refused, calling the genre one step below instruction manuals. Norm then promptly took a two-year hiatus from stand-up comedy to live on a farm in northern Canada. When he emerged he had under his arm a manuscript, a genre-smashing book about comedy, tragedy, love, loss, war, and redemption. When asked if this was the celebrity memoir, Norm replied, Call it anything you damn like.

Praise for Based on a True Story

Dostoyevsky by way of 30 Rockefeller Center . . . the best new book Ive read this year or last.The Wall Street Journal

This book is absurd fiction. . . . Scathing and funny.The New York Times

Hilarious and filled with turns of phrase and hidden beauty like only a collection of Norm Macdonald stories could be.Esquire

Raucous . . . a hilarious, innovative work.A.V. Club

Part personal history and part meta riff on celebrity memoirs, the book, it quickly becomes clear, is also just partly true (and all hilarious).Vulture

Very, very, very funny! Thanks, Norm, for letting me be part of this Booker Prizeforliteraturequality effort.David Letterman

Norm is brilliant and thoughtful and there is sensitivity and creative insight in his observations and stories. A lot of comics over the years have been compared to Mark Twain, but I think Norm is the only one who actually matches the guy in terms of his voice and ability. I seriously f**king love Norm Macdonald. Please buy his book. He probably needs the cash. Hes really bad with money.Louis C.K., from the foreword

Norm is one of my all-time favorites, and this book was such a great read I forgot how lonely I was for a while.Amy Schumer

I always thought Normies stand-up was the funniest thing there was. But this book gives it a run for its money.Adam Sandler

Norm is one of the greatest stand-up comics whos ever workeda totally original voice. His sense of the ridiculous and his use of juxtaposition in his writing make him a comics comic. We all love Norm.Roseanne Barr

Norm Macdonald makes me laugh my ass off. Who is funnier than Norm Macdonald? Nobody.Judd Apatow

Norm Macdonald is more than a triple threathes a septuple threat. He is smart, funny, wry, rakish, polite, rakish . . . no, wait. He is polite, insightful, and . . . aaaaah . . . warm. No. Hes exciting. Yeah. Exciting! You never know what hell do. Okay, then make that unpredictable. Add that up. Hes amazing.Alec Baldwin

Norm is a double threat. His material and timing are both top-notch, which is unheard of. He is one of my favorites, both on- and off-stage.Dave Attell

Letterman said it best: There is no one funnier than Norm Macdonald.Rob Schneider