Nobody Will Tell You This But Me: A True (as Told to Me) Story

Television writer and New Yorker contributor Bess Kalb, who is nominated for an Emmy, kept every voicemail her grandma Bobby Bell had left her. Bobby possessed immense power; he was flamboyant, glitzy, and unapologetically opinionated. Bobby spoiled Bess, and Bess loved Bobby. Then Bobby passed away at ninety. However, Bobby is speaking to Bess again in this first memoir, and this time, his voice is as passionate as it has ever been.

Bobby introduces us to four generations of strong women and the men who cared for them, recounting both family legend and family secrets. There's Bobby's mother, who fled the pogroms in Belarus by herself in the 1880s and Bess's mother, a rebellious woman from the 1970s who always defied authority. And then there's Bess, a New York native who made her way into the cutthroat world of Los Angeles television. Grandma Bobby was Bess's guiding light during her early years and her staunchest ally. She showed her unconditional love, sometimes of the harshest kind.

No One Else But Me Will Tell You This, Bobby brings up their past experiences, and Bess gives her trademark advice in calls, texts, and heartfelt conversations that are beautifully captured on paper:

You only have to step one foot in front of the other if the ground is fracturing beneath you.

Never. Purchase. Anything can be fake.

I promise you that all of this is accurate.

Bess Kalb provides poignant and humorous evidence of the unique friendship that transcends generational boundaries and endures until death. This novel is the product of a very gifted writer's exceptional imagination and ventriloquism.