Michael J. Coffino

Truth is in the House

Sun., Mar. 20, 2022 • 4:00pm PT • Corte Madera Store

In conversation with Robert Stricker

As a young boy in the late 1950s, Jimmy O'Farrell emigrates with his family from Ireland to Manhattan to bask in the dawn of a new life. Thousands of miles away, the family of Jaylen Jackson seeks to build a life amid Jim Crow culture in Mississippi. As teenagers, both boys struggle to come of age in a racially divisive world, suffering horrific tragedies that shape their characters and life missions. Jimmy seeks to define what it means to stand for someone when the chips are down, while Jaylen embarks on a journey to gain respect beyond the color of his skin.

Fleeing the past, both families land in neighboring Bronx communities in the 1960s, where Jimmy and Jaylen's lives first intersect, on the basketball courts and then in the Vietnam jungle. Repeatedly tested as men of different races, their friendship faces its toughest challenge outside a Bronx bar-with fatal consequences. Truth Is in the House is an epic and provocative tale that plumbs historical and modern racial themes and explores redemption, forgiveness, and the power of connecting through the human spirit.

Before becoming a full-time author, ghostwriter, editor, and writing coach, Michael J. Coffino had two parallel careers. One was in the courtroom as a business litigation and trial attorney where he delighted in the art of legal writing and advocacy storytelling for clients. The other was in the gymnasium as a basketball coach, primarily at the high school level, coaching both girls and boys in public and private schools. His life-long passion for reading, the written word, and storytelling drove him into the literary world several years ago. Since then, he has authored, co-authored, ghostwrote, edited, and coached in multiple genres: memoir (true crime, business, spiritual quest, personal, military, and life-coaching and motivational); sports (basketball and high school athletics); web content; blogs; and fiction.

Robert Stricker is a literary agent, editor, and ghostwriter, spending over thirty years finding the right combination of words and bringing them to publication, from Ram Dass to Jim Morrison. Mr. Stricker has shepherded bestsellers by Dr. Carl Djerassi, father of the birth control pill, and Dr. Leonard Shlain, author of The Alphabet Versus the Goddess: The Conflict Between Word and Image. In between there was always time for Why Cats Paint: A Theory of Feline Aesthetics and How to Shit in the Woods: An Environmentally Sound Approach to a Lost Art. His books have been translated into 10 languages, with 4,000,000 copies in print.