“AN AFRICAN REBOUND”
by Dan Doyle
Publication Date: November 1, 2010

At age 66, Jim Keating’s basketball coaching career has hit bottom. In today’s hoop’s lingo, one might say that he’s been “clotheslined,” undercut by a disloyal assistant and fighting charges of racial insensitivity, all the while struggling to cope with his wife’s worsening cancer.

We meet Jim just after he is fired from a job that had promised to restore his reputation as a top flight coach. It is his third straight dismissal, after achieving early success as a high school and college coach.

After Jim’s wife dies, he returns to his hometown of Worcester, Massachusetts where he hopes to recover among familiar surroundings. Even after several decades, Jim Keating still carries the mantle of “the greatest athlete in the history of Worcester.” Yet despite the efforts of friends, Jim remains mired in severe depression.

Word of his situation reaches Barry Sklar, a friend from the old Worcester neighborhood, whose career in the Foreign Service has reached a high level, putting him in touch with a wide network of influential people, one of whom is Cynthia Foster, U.S. Ambassador to Burundi. Sklar asks Foster to help him develop a project in Burundi with the core objectives of using basketball as a medium to bring the Hutu and Tutsi tribes together, and help his friend restore his state of self-belief. Jim receives a job offer, sees the offer as a lifeline and accepts the position.

The excitement of the new challenge lifts Jim from his despondency, and he takes on the position with an energy and enthusiasm he felt in his first coaching job 30 years earlier. During a trip to Kayanza, a remote area in Burundi, to assess the talent that might be available, Jim watches a lithe fourteen year old athlete playing soccer and knows that his soccer skills can transfer to the basketball court. The young man’s name is Leonard Tangishaka, and in addition to his remarkable athleticism, Leonard is seven feet tall.

With equal measures of success and tragedy “An African Rebound” follows Jim and Leonard on a basketball journey as riveting as it is poignant.

GALLEY REQUEST & FURTHER INFORMATION

On March 15, 2010, An African Rebound website will be launched. The website will include testimonials from 20 distinguished individuals – journalists, academicians, coaches and ex-athletes, who have read the draft of the novel.

If you would like a galley sent to you in March, 2010, please email:

Laurie DeRuosi
iis102@etal.uri.edu