Tell Me the Truth About Love

Erik Tarloff  is the author of the national bestseller Face-Time, The Man Who Wrote the Book and All Our Yesterdays.  His last book, The Woman In Black, was a Los Angeles Times bestseller.Much of his early work was written for the screen, both large and small and for publications including Slate, The Atlantic, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Financial Times, and many others. His list of credits includes almost one hundred situation comedy scripts, including multiple episodes of M*A*S*H, All in the Family, the Bob Newhart Show, the Jeffersons, Alice, Room 222, Housecalls, My World and Welcome To It, and many others. For his television writing, he has been nominated for an Emmy Award, a Writers Guild Award, and an NAACP Image Award. He currently lives in Berkeley, California with his wife, economist Laura Tyson. This is his fifth novel.

"In the art of opera, both ecstasy and misery emanate from love. We wouldn’t have it any other way. People are like that."—SF Chronicle"Tarloff has a knack for bristly close encounters...plot summaries don't do justice to the ways in which the author gracefully weaves together his intersecting story lines as a vehicle to illustrate larger themes"—Zyzzyva"Tarloff’s latest is packed with unexpected twists and a haunting, funny love story for grown-ups."—Diablo Magazine"Sharp, fast-paced, and unapologetic in its portrayal of the worlds of artistic philanthropy and patronage, Erik Tarloff's operatic new novel gives us the juiciest of predicaments: a protagonist who is difficult but impossible to ignore. San Francisco, meanwhile, plays a supporting role vividly and compellingly."—Belinda McKeon, author of Tender“Reading Erik Tarloff’s Tell Me the Truth About Love is like eating a box of carefully selected chocolate truffles: you don’t want to stop.” —Wendy Lesser, author of Music for Silenced Voices“All the complications of love are here, neatly plotted against a background of arts intrigue.  The characterization is clever yet rich in sympathy, even for those who stand in love’s way. This is among the best of Tarloff’s novels – funny, smart, and full of unexpected twists.”—Zachary Leader, author of The Life of Saul Bellow"In Tell Me the Truth About Love, Erik Tarloff displays his unique and uncanny ability to make any culture accessible and universal. A true master of dialogue, he doesn’t just ‘tell’ you a story. He makes you a character within.  This book literally begs for a sequel."—Carter Monroe, author of Waffle House Blues“The characters are real, the tensions and the beguiling undercurrents of sensuality are beautifully handled.  An elegant, haunting love story for grown ups.”—Martin Walker, author of the Bruno, Chief of Police novels"Tell Me the Truth About Love is a literary beach read. It combines vivid characters, plot twists and plenty of sex, with the elegant dialogue, psychological insight, and sophisticated comedy we've come to expect from Erik Tarloff.”—George Stephanopoulos, ABC News“Give someone Tell Me the Truth About Love...and the lucky person will disappear on you until it’s finished…It’s hard to decide whether the repartee is the best you’ve ever heard or the sex is the best you’ve never had…Tarloff, who told us all he knew about power in Washington left it for San Francisco to tell us all he knows about love.”—Margaret Carlson“[Tarloff’s] books combine hold-your-attention plotting, with elegant and droll dialogue and description, with insider awareness of their respective settings. This one is set in the arts world of San Francisco…Among other things, it is a comedy-of-manners about the world of philanthropy, and the endless dance between the people who must ask for money and those who decide whether to give…From Evelyn Waugh onward, the Brits have been world champions in mercilessly hilarious depictions of this sort of relations-among-unequals. Erik has a Brit-worthy touch. The book is also about gender politics of all sorts, about parents and children, about love and loss."—James Fallows