The Bone Man of Benares

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

Terry Tarnoff was born in Rice Lake, Wisconsin, a small town in the northern United States, the son of Russian immigrants. 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, traveled around Europe for three months, and designed and distributed psychedelic posters in Berkeley, California, all the while putting off a planned career in psychiatry. As Woodstock dissolved into Altamont, he headed back to Europe and 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 lived in experimental communities, 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 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, had four scripts optioned by Hollywood production companies, taught two film courses, driven a taxi, managed an African art gallery, and written for an internet film site. His first book, The Bone Man of Benares, was published by St. Martin’s Press in 2004. A one-man show adapted from the book was produced later that year by the Encore Theatre Company in San Francisco. Terry is currently working on a new novel. He lives in San Francisco.