Terry Tarnoff - The Reflectionist (Corte Madera)

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. This new work 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. 

Terry Tarnoff was born in Rice Lake, Wisconsin, a small town in the northern United States. His family later moved to Milwaukee where, at the age of twelve, he became a cub reporter for The Northwest Reporter. He was paid a penny a word to write phony letters to the editor to help fill out a half-empty newspaper. He attended the University of Wisconsin in Madison during the political upheaval of the 1960s, worked at the East Side Bookstore in New York's East Village during the Summer of Love, lived for several years in Berkeley, then headed for Europe, where he supported himself as a blues musician, playing harmonica in bands from London to Amsterdam to Stockholm.

Soon after, he hooked up with an international brigade of travelers--a new generation of expatriates who took their cues from Henry Miller, Paul Bowles and Jack Kerouac as they pushed further down the road. That road led to the coast of Kenya and the plains of Tanzania, to the deserts of India and the mountains of Nepal, to the war-torn villages of Laos and the islands of Indonesia. Along the way, Terry explored the mysteries of Hinduism and Buddhism, played with an African band in Mombasa, performed as a singer-guitarist in the Far East, and was a founding member of a rock band in Goa, India. After eight years on the road, he returned to San Francisco in 1978, where he continued his musical career for several years before turning to writing. He has since worked as a screenwriter, taught two film courses, driven a taxi, managed an African art gallery, and written for an internet film site.

Terry's first book, The Bone Man of Benares, was published in the U.S. by St. Martin's Press in 2004. It was subsequently published by Bantam Books in the U.K., by Allen & Unwin Publishers in Australia, and has been translated into Italian, Japanese, and Chinese. The book was reprinted in the U.S. by Avian Press in 2013. A one-man show adapted from The Bone Man of Benares was produced shortly after its initial publication by the Encore Theatre Company in San Francisco, where it had a very successful six-week run. The book and play were soon thereafter optioned for a feature film in Hollywood. Terry's last three books, The Thousand Year Journey of Tobias Parker, The Chronicle of Stolen Dreams, and The Reflectionist, have been published by Avian Press. Terry lives in San Francisco with his wife, artist Tina Tarnoff. 

 

Location: 

51 Tamal Vista Blvd
Corte Madera, CA 94925