Tell Me Something True [Paperback]

Leila Cobo (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1, 2009

Gabriella always loved the picture of her mother kneeling in front of a bed of roses, smiling, beautiful and impossibly happy. But then she learns that her late mother hated gardening; that she had never wanted the house in the Hollywood hills, the successful movie producer husband, and possibly, her only daughter. When Gabriella discovers a journal--a book that begins as a new mother's letters to her baby girl, but becomes a secret diary--the final entry leaves one question unanswered: the night her mother died, was she returning to Colombia to end an affair, or was she abandoning her family for good?

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Cobo's sweet debut novel is the story of two women—a mother and daughter—and the love affairs that irrevocably changed their lives. Gabriella, 21, is a piano prodigy raised by her wealthy grandmother in Colombia and her movie producer father in Los Angeles. Her mother, Helena, was a renowned photographer who died when Gabriella was four. When she attends a party in the Hollywood Hills, Gabriella meets Angel, the man of her dreams. There's one catch: he's a mobster. As Gabriella tries to reconcile her conflicted feelings toward Angel, she discovers her mother's diary. Soon she is drawn into Helena's secret life, one that involved a passionate love affair. Betrayed and confused, Gabriela tries to find her mother's lover. But when her own romance begins to spiral out of control, Gabriella must come to terms with the fact that she's very much her mother's daughter. Cobo's well-drawn characters help bolster the story when Gabriella's tragic romance occasionally slides into melodrama. The smooth prose and authentic Colombian settings provide a unique spin to familiar territory. (Oct.)
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Review

"[A] poignant tale of truths hidden and laid bare." (Booklist )

"The smooth prose and authentic Colombian settings provide a unique spin to familiar territory." (Publishers Weekly )

"A good story, delicately told with pathos and compassion." (BookLoons Reviews )

"This heart-wrenching story focuses on how memories permeate the everyday, the relationship between mothers and daughters, and the role family plays in our most intimate relationships." (RT Book Reviews )

"Con una trama que deja al lector preguntando por una continuación de esta historia, la periodista y pianista Leila Cobo ingresa con el pie derecho al mundo de la novela con su primer libro, Tell Me Something True." -Semana ("With a story that leaves the reader wanting more, journalist and pianist Leila Cobo enters the literary world on the right foot with her first novel, Tell Me Something True." (Semana )

"This first novel, one of the best that I have read all year, throws question after question at the reader and tosses us all back to our first loves and the choices we may or may not have made....Relentless an absolutely honest, the surprise ending is unbeatable. Wonderful writing, content, themes and characters... this novel is a must read. Bravo!" (www.thereviewbroads.com )

"Raw, passionate, honest and fearless." (Examiner.com )

"Tell Me Something True is an utterly wonderful and riveting book that had me in its clutches from the first page. It is lyrical and sensual with no word out of place. The character development is perfect, deep and meaningful, bringing the reader into the heart of the protagonists and their lives. In a sense, this novel sang to me in its poignant story of great loves." (www.mostlyfiction.com )

"[Tell Me Something True] is a well told story. The characters are alive and maintain a reader's interest until the last word." (Midwest Book Review )

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 308 pages
• Publisher: Grand Central Publishing; Original edition (October 1, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0446519367
• ISBN-13: 978-0446519366
• Product Dimensions: 5.2 x 1 x 8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,202,978 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

About the Author

Considered one of the leading Latin music journalists in the world, Cobo is also Billboard's executive director of Latin content and host of "Estudio Billboard," the critically acclaimed interview show that airs weekly on the V-Me network.
Also a former concert pianist, Leila Cobo is a native of Cali, Colombia, the setting of her debut novel, "Tell Me Something True."
Leila decided early on to blend her two loves--music and writing--into one, and has forged a career as a leading music journalist who considers that being a musician is essential in accurately covering other musicians.
Leila is the the organizer and host of Billboard's annual Latin Music Conference, where where a major component are her one on one interviews with superstars like Ricky Martin, Marc Anthony, Paulina Rubio and Enrique Iglesias. Leila has also written liner notes for the likes of Shakira and Chayanne. She is also the host of the television show Estudio Billboard, which features in-depth interviews with top Latin acts. Leila is Fulbright Scholar with a master's degree from the Annenberg School at the University of Southern California and also holds dual degrees in journalism, from Bogota's Universidad Javeriana, and in piano performance from the Manhattan School of Music.
She concertized extensively as a classical pianist before dedicating herself full-time to writing and journalism.
She lives in Key Biscayne, Fl. with her husband and children.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 22 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Debut!!! October 1, 2009

By Bonnie Brody TOP 100 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Paperback

Leila Cobo's debut novel is an utterly wonderful and riveting book that had me in its clutches from the first page. It is lyrical and sensual with no word out of place. The character development is perfect, deep and meaningful, bringing the reader into the heart of the protagonists and their lives. In a sense, this novel sang to me in its poignant story of great loves.

The story is about Gabriella, a young woman who is half American and half Colombian. She was orphaned at four years old when her mother died in a plane crash. Every year Gabriella goes to Cali, where her mother is from, to spend a month with her grandparents. She has always believed that her mother and father led an idyllic and perfect life until she finds her mother's diary in Cali - - and then she realizes that what she thought was true is a lie.

The diary talks about a tumultuous affair that Helena, her mother, had when Gabriella was four. Helena was in Cali for two months working on a photography book that had been commissioned by the governor. She met a man who she fell in love with and Gabriella questions whether Helena would have abandoned her and her father for her lover. The diary consumes her as she reads page after page of sensual and loin tingling descriptions of their affair. Gabriella is puzzled and angry about her family's secrets, of being led to believe something was true that was not.

At the same time that Gabriella finds the diary, she meets a young man. Angel, with whom she falls in love. Gabriella and Angel are both rich and are part of high society but Angel has a darkness about him and is not accepted by the old money that Gabriella is associated with. Angel's father is the foremost drug lord of Cali and is currently in jail. Everywhere that Angel goes, he is accompanied by a cotillion of armed guards. Gabriella is swept off her feet and their love affair is as sensually and sexily described as any literary depiction I've every read. Now Gabriella is at a crossroads. Is she drawn to Angel because of her anger and puzzlement about her mother's actions or is she truly in love with this man for who he is, despite his family?

The book gives a very detailed and clear portrayal of Colombian culture and lifestyles. Having been to Colombia, I can say with some experience that the descriptions of armed bodyguards, cotillions of soldiered cars, the danger, the frenetic and joyful lifestyle, the parties, the fear and the celebrations all ring true.

The book is structured in chapters alternating Gabriella's experiences with pages from Helena's diary. The story flows beautifully in this manner as both women's lives are juxtaposed on one another. We feel the joy, the pain, the heat, and the quandaries that each woman experiences. We feel at one with them. I am not one who usually cries when I read books, but this book brought tears to my eyes - - of joy and of pain. It is a wonderful book and I look forward with anticipation to Ms. Cobo's next novel.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful story of family relationships October 13, 2009

By BermudaOnion VINE™ VOICE

Format:Paperback

When Gabriella was four years old her mother, Helena, died in a plane crash. Her American father wanted her to know her Colombian heritage and family, so he took her to Cali to visit her maternal grandmother every year. As Gabriella got older, she would go for the visits by herself, staying with her grandmother for a month at a time.

When Gabriella is twenty-one, she goes for her month long visit. On her first night there, her cousin drags her to a party and she meets, and is attracted to, a dangerous young man. At first she tries to keep her relationship with him secret, but eventually decides she doesn't care who knows.

When her grandmother tells Gabriella that her old family home will be torn down to build luxury condos, Gabriella returns for one last visit. While she's there, she discovers her mother's old diary, which her mother wrote to her. What she reads in that diary changes Gabriella's life forever and causes her to make some decisions she might not have made otherwise.

TELL ME SOMETHING TRUE by Leila Cobo grabbed me from the start and never let go. This book is about relationships and the damage lies can do to them. The story alternates between Gabriella's viewpoint in the present day and her mother's viewpoint from the past via her diary, with one short chapter from Gabriella's grandmother's viewpoint. I thought Gabriella was a great character and I could really relate to her, even though our lives are nothing alike. I couldn't put the book down because I had to know what was in the diary and how it was going to affect Gabriella. Gabriella did some things that I didn't agree with, but I could understand why she made the choices she did. I think anyone who enjoys stories about relationships will enjoy this book.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Something True...Something False November 12, 2009

By Jill I. Shtulman TOP 500 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Paperback

"What if everything you believed about your family was a lie?" That's the cover's theme promise of Tell Me Something True, and if this theme were truly followed, it might have been an exceptional book. Certainly, it tackles many important issues: the defining relationships between mothers and daughters, balancing emotion and lust with responsibility, burying the past and embracing the future.

The plot centers on L.A.-raised Gabriella Richards, whose mother died when Gabriella was just a toddler in a Miami-Cali jet crash. While visiting her aristocratic and kind-hearted grandmother in Columbia, Gabriella chances across her mother's diary, written just for her. She learns that her mother -- at the time of her death -- was involved in a passionate relationship with a Columbia-born man. At the same time, Gabriella drifts into a relationship of her own with the handsome and charismatic son of one of Columbia's top drug dealers...a man who is nothing like his father. The question arises: how far do you go for love? How much is too much?

The novel is told in alternating chapters; Gabriella, and then diary entrees from Helena (Gabriella's mother). And herein lies the problem. The diary seems resoundingly false. First, it is difficult for the reader to distinguish who is Gabriella and who is Helena; both "voices" sound identical. The diary does not have that intimate, communicative feel of a diary; rather, it sounds somewhat pretentious and contrived. Neither of these two key characters stand individually and on her own.

It is also difficult to understand the draw of these forbidden love affairs. Certainly, there is much lust, which is a key component of initial love. But the men -- Gabriella's Angel and Helena's Juan Jose -- never rise far beyond the caricatures of a romance novel. They are, at least in Angel's case, strikingly handsome. But these tragic romances flirt with melodrama. And some of the dialogue -- such as when Gabriella refers to herself as an "execrable creature" is just too way over the top.

One more observation: All too often in literature, women who defy societal expectations and have passionate affairs (think: Madame Bovary, Anna Karenina, the list goes on and on) are ultimately "punished through death" for their indiscretions. Whether this author intended to follow in this path or not with Helena's death (this is revealed early on and is NOT a spoiler), there was still something disheartening about the "easy out." I say this, mindful that it was necessary as a plot device.

I note that I am in the minority; most others have given this novel far higher ratings. This novel has and will find its audience among those who enjoy romantic tales. Its description of Cali, Columbia comes across as genuine and real. For me, though, the novel had too many flaws to rate it more favorably.