About the Book
Nick Blake has just returned from the battlefields of Europe and is part of a lost generation trying to make its way in postwar America. As he sets out on a journey across the country, the summer of 1947 comes alive in a mind-bending, history-altering romp. Nick witnesses the birth of electric blues in Chicago, encounters the first members of the Beat Generation taking to the road, gets caught up with the original motorcycle gang invading small-town America, and is party to the first sightings of UFOs across the Midwestern skies. Along the way, he encounters a young Muddy Waters, an even younger Jack Kerouac, and a blues-loving, harmonica-playing alien named Jaxson Epsilon, the most unusual character of them all. Jaxson has a secret that is about to change the course of human history as he endeavors to alter the dreams of every man, woman, and child for generations to come.In this groundbreaking exploration of the brain, dreams, and neurology, the reader is thrust into the dark corners and hidden pathways of human consciousness. The Chronicle of Stolen Dreams is alternately profound, hilarious, and provocative as it poses theories of human behavior that challenge all accepted wisdom. The book is part Vonnegut, part Rushdie, part Chabon, and entirely Tarnoff as the author of "The Bone Man of Benares" and "The Thousand Year Journey of Tobias Parker" pushes into a whole new universe of ideas. The summer of 1947 will never again be seen the same way.
About the Author: 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. Terry's second book, "The Thousand Year Journey of Tobias Parker," was published by Avian Press in March, 2013. His third book, "The Chronicle of Stolen Dreams," was published by Avian Press in October, 2013. Terry lives in San Francisco with his wife, artist Tina Tarnoff.
