Fiction. Literary Nonfiction. California Interest. When screenwriter Tobias Parker discovers that every family on Earth is here to accomplish a particular task, he becomes determined to fulfill his family's destiny. He learns that a unique battle is passed through the generations from father to son and mother to daughter, and that once the mission is fulfilled the family takes its place in a kind of celestial jigsaw puzzle. As Tobias embarks on his quest, his life becomes a breathless whirlwind which throws Hollywood, a misbegotten romance, and an arcane religious artifact into a roiling stew. His topsy-turvy, existential journey takes him to some hilarious highs, devastating lows, and leads him to ponder a whole bagful of thought- provoking ideas. In the end, Tobias discovers his family's profound destiny and learns not only the meaning of his own life but provides a big clue for the rest of us as well. "THE THOUSAND YEAR JOURNEY OF TOBIAS PARKER is a tour de force. Hilariously funny, thoughtful and multi-dimensional, it's a roller coaster ride up and down San Francisco's Telegraph Hill and around Washington Square, fueled by a Hollywood action-adventure retelling of Wagner's biblical opera, Parsifal. Evoking the likes of Confederacy of Dunces sprinkled with Ask The Dust, our raving hero in this case, Tobias Parker, the prolific screenwriter, also brings to mind the movie hero Barton Fink as Tarnoff deeply mines what he knows, for laughs, romance and a little enlightenment on the side."—Jody Weiner "After reading THE BONE MAN OF BENARES, many of us hoped to hear more tales of adventure from Terry Tarnoff. He has done it again with his customary gusto and we don't need to worry about waiting for THE THOUSAND YEAR JOURNEY OF TOBIAS PARKER to be made into a film because when reading this delightful new book, you have a front row seat and are already in the movie itself. Terry Tarnoff has the gift of making the reader feel that he or she is part of the story. This is the gift of great story tellers."—David Amram

Faced with a government they could not trust and a war they did not want, the burn outs went to Haight Ashbury, the drop outs went around the world.

The PEN/Faulkner Award–winning author recounts coming of age in 1950s Washington State with his mother and abusive stepfather in this classic memoir. This unforgettable memoir, by one of our most gifted writers, introduces us to the young Toby Wolff, by turns tough and vulnerable, crafty and bumbling, and ultimately winning. Separated by divorce from his father and brother, Toby and his mother are constantly on the move. As he fights for identity and self-respect against the unrelenting hostility of a new stepfather, his experiences are at once poignant and comical, and Wolff masterfully re-creates the frustrations, cruelties, and joys of adolescence. His various schemes—running away to Alaska, forging checks, and stealing cars—lead eventually to an act of outrageous self-invention that releases him into a new world of possibility. Praise for This Boy’s Life “Wolff writes in language that is lyrical without embellishment, defines his characters with exact strokes and perfectly pitched voices, [and] creates suspense around ordinary events, locating the deep mystery within them.” —Los Angeles Times Book Review “[This] extraordinary memoir is so beautifully written that we not only root for the kid Wolff remembers, but we also are moved by the universality of his experience.” —San Francisco Chronicle “A work of genuine literary art . . . as grim and eerie as Great Expectations, as surreal and cruel as The Painted Bird, as comic and transcendent as Huckleberry Finn.” —The Philadelphia Inquirer “Wolff’s genius is in his fine storytelling. This Boy’s Life reads and entertains as easily as a novel. Wolff’s writing and timing are superb, as are his depictions of those of us who endured the 50s.” —The Oregonian

Literary Nonfiction. Travel. It was a different time in a different world. Terry Tarnoff spent eight years during the 1970s traveling throughout Europe, Africa and Asia. It was the early days of exploring what were to become legendary spots on the traveler's trail. Whether playing the clubs of Amsterdam, skirting the Yakuza in Japan, surviving the winters of Kathmandu, or forming a band in Goa, India, Terry's adventures are alternately engrossing, hilarious and deeply moving. THE REFLECTIONIST is Tarnoff's long-awaited follow-up to THE BONE MAN OF BENARES, a highly acclaimed book and play that told the first half of the story. THE REFLECTIONIST continues the tale, adding new meaning as it looks back from the perspective of modern times upon a period that continues to fascinate people of all generations across the globe. "In the long-awaited sequel to his brilliant THE BONE MAN OF BENARES, Terry Tarnoff's memoir, THE REFLECTIONIST reminds me of Daguerre's description of photography as a mirror with a memory, with the significant twist that Tarnoff's is a circus mirror, revealing psychedelic images and picaresque stories from the fabled traveler's trail of the now mythic Sixties. Moreover, Tarnoff employs a dazzling writing technique, which is the equivalent of scrying, gazing into a reflective surface to review the past and foretell the future, that allows the reader to watch him watching himself on his pilgrim's progress through life. A tour-de-force of memoir and travel writing." --Phil Cousineau, author of The Book of Roads & The Art of Pilgrimage

Harry Parker was probably the most important figure in American rowing of the past century. His heavyweight crews at Harvard topped the leagues more consistently than any other team (they won the Eastern Sprints regatta, against most of the top college crews, more than three times as often as their nearest rival). From the time they miraculously won the 1963 Harvard-Yale Race at the end of his first year at the helm, his varsity didn’t lose a race for six years, and they didn’t lose to Yale until the Reagan administration. He was the first US National Team coach, and oversaw five Olympic teams. He coached the sons of his great oarsmen from the 60’s and 70’s, and at age 70 was still putting the sons to shame on a bicycle, or running the steps of the Harvard Stadium. He was respected by all, revered and adored by his rowers, and yet no one seemed to know him. The persistent myth was that he hardly said a word, and that his powerful mystique alone made his oarsmen great and their boats go fast. Though a fundamentally compelling figure, Parker’s famous reticence means that few managed to spend much time close to him. Since he made no attempt to explain himself, legends abound: he never got older; he could control the weather; he could walk on water. The Sphinx of the Charles: A Year at Harvard with Harry Parker takes the reader not only inside the Harvard boathouse, but into the coaching launch with Parker. We see how he coached—how many words he actually uttered—as he guided his team through a year of training, and hear about his life in the sport. We see a paradox: Parker remained remarkably constant over the last forty-five years, yet he constantly evolved, changed his style, and used every means at his disposal to build champion crews. The Sphinx of the Charles goes inside the rowing world in a way hasn’t been done before, putting the reader in the passenger seat next to one of the most successful coaches of all time. Parker is a historical icon, part of a tradition that goes back to the beginning of intercollegiate athletics in America. His story needs to be told. The Sphinx of the Charles is fundamentally a chronicle of a year with the Harvard team and a profile of Harry Parker as he was, five years before his death: comfortable in his position as elder and master of the sport, reflective but not nostalgic, aged but nearly impervious to aging. It is driven by Ayer’s own observations of Parker from his seven years of coaching and training at the Harvard boathouse, but especially from one academic year, 2008-9. he shadowed him for a few days every week from September to June, observing practices both on and off the water, and interacting with the team. The present tense of the narrative reflects this immediacy, but also the sense that Parker has endured and continues to endure. And though The Sphinx of the Charles is not a biography in the usual sense, Parker’s life and career were rich and extraordinary and they must be explored.

Fiction. Literary Nonfiction. In 1971, Terry Tarnoff packed a bag, a guitar and sixteen harmonicas and headed out on an eight year journey that would take him into the jungles of Africa, the mountains of India and beyond. This account of his revelatory journey is a tumultuous love story, a spiritual odyssey, and a rollicking escapade all rolled up into one. Tarnoff is a fevered, risk-taking writer with an uncanny ability to render place. THE BONE MAN OF BENARES is a lunatic bird of a book, flapping, singing, soaring, often all at the same time. It's a wild-hearted celebration of cross-cultural discovery, a laugh-out-loud, delirious adventure that traverses the chasm of time, speaking to readers young and old about the universal need for connection. "THE BONE MAN OF BENARES is the kind of sweeping, atmospheric epic they just don't make any more. Terry Tarnoff renders this engaging young-man-on-the-road saga with the heightened elan of a bangi-abusing Paul Theroux or hippied-out E. M. Forster. In the grand tradition, THE BONE MAN OF BENARES stands out as the best kind of contempo literary globe-trotting. It does what a great novel should do--leave you feeling like you've been there."--Jerry Stahl "Terry Tarnoff is a writer whose every word, like a great blues master's instrumental solos, pulls you into his world. THE BONE MAN OF BENARES is the extraordinary real life saga of a modern day harmonica-playing Don Quixote, telling us his story with irresistible gusto and elan. Tarnoff makes you feel at home as you ride by his side on his global tour, sharing one incredible adventure after another. The trials and tribulations of romance and self-discovery, all set in exotic locales, make this adventure tale alternately engrossing, touching and hilarious. From the very first page until the last, it is nearly impossible to put the book down, and even more enjoyable to read the second time."--David Amram "Terry Tarnoff's book, THE BONE MAN OF BENARES, calls to the reader like a train-whistle moaning in the distance. Written with rhythm and blues, it's the picaresque tale of a '60s expatriate looking for adventure all over the globe. But underneath the exotica is something even more compelling, the voice of a bona fide soul singer, a latter-day pilgrim, seeking the spiritual meaning of the road. Read this book for the literary rock and roll ride of your life."--Phil Cousineau "For those who lived through the several-years-long Summer of Love, Terry Tarnoff's THE BONE MAN OF BENARES will provide satisfying doses of wincing nostalgia. For those who didn't, here is an entertaining manual of what they missed."--Herbert Gold "I laughed (rollicked) my way through THE BONE MAN OF BENARES. Terry Tarnoff is one of the funniest writers I've ever read, maybe because so much serious depth underlies the humor. Lots of people made those road trips in the 60's; few got any lasting insights out of them. Tarnoff clearly has."--Gerald Nicosia