Hilarious. Poignant. Inspiring. That's how early readers are describing Finding the Story. It's the jaunty story of high-profile journalist revisiting the mistakes of his life ? and the mysterious forces that kept him afloat.

Narrator George Anders is in trouble from the opening pages onward, as the lone American in a banquet room full of Russians knocking back vodka shots. For the next 30 years, George can't stop running. He's a foot messenger for a day, getting screamed at by the lewd boss of Screw magazine. He's a guest of British royalty, watching Prince Charles play polo. He earns part of a Pulitzer Prize while at The Wall Street Journal; he rides atop a mountainside bus in Nepal with an intriguing new girlfriend, hoping they don't fall off and die.

All the while, does the master storyteller even understand his own story? His early years have been a shambles, with wrong-headed choices about alcohol, women, housing and more. Is there still time to get it right? A friend prophetically tells George at age 40: "Becoming a parent will make you a much better person ? and a much worse investigative reporter."

Redemption isn't just about turning his storytelling skills toward kindness, rather than scandal. The biggest transformation comes in the book's final pages. That's when George finally finds the clarity (and the humility) to write a landmark story about his own father's courage during World War II. Sometimes the biggest heroes are the people you've known all your life.