Coleman, Carter

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COLEMAN, Carter

PERSONAL: Son of Mary Carter Hughes Coleman. Education: Graduated from Vanderbilt University.

ADDRESSES: Home—New York, NY; TN; Tanzania. Agent—c/o Author Mail, Warner Books, 1271 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020.

CAREER: Journalist and novelist. Reporter in Nairobi for Time magazine. Vice president, Tanzania Wildlife Fund.

WRITINGS:

NOVELS

The Volunteer, Warner Books (New York, NY), 1998.

Cage's Bend, Warner Books (New York, NY), 2005.

Contributor to periodicals, including Rolling Stone, Outside, Esquire, Sports Illustrated, Life, and Los Angeles Times Book Review.

SIDELIGHTS: Carter Coleman's first novel, The Volunteer, explores a clash between cultural norms and personal desires. The story's protagonist is Rutledge Jordan, a philandering lawyer who, despite his constant infidelity, realizes the depth of his loss when his fiancée leaves him. Jordan's remorse leads him to join the Peace Corps. He travels to Tanzania, where he works helping the natives construct fisheries. Rutledge meets Zanifa, an attractive young woman who is about to be married to a sultan and subjected to ritual mutilation. Jordan urges her to resist her fate, and becomes deeply involved with her in a way he never intended. Coleman, a journalist who has reported from Africa, brings a genuine knowledge of his setting to the story, which many critics praised as both thoughtful and exciting. "Impressive action scenes begin and end this debut novel," related a Publishers Weekly reviewer, who particularly praised the author's "brief, haunting descriptions of the incursions of pop culture on the rural life of Tanzania." David Keymer, a contributor to Library Journal, called the book "an accomplished novel, satisfying to the most discriminating reader."

Coleman's next novel, Cage's Bend, was conceived by the author as a counterpoint to The Volunteer. Whereas his first book had been about an utterly foreign place and culture, Cage's Bend features a setting and family very much like the author's own. It takes place in the American South and tells the story of a family, headed by a Protestant minister, that is struggling to cope with the unexpected death of a twenty-six-year-old son. When Nick is a victim of a car accident, his elder brother, Cage, spirals into manic depression, while younger brother Harper tries to hold things together. A Kirkus Reviews contributor described Cage's Bend as "a fresh, original account of domestic love and loss that offers interesting characters, brisk narrative and unusual settings." Elizabeth Dickey, reviewing the novel for Booklist, commended Coleman for creating "memorable and arresting characters who step off the page."