Born eleven months apart and coming of age in the Deep South of the sixties and seventies, Cage and Nick Rutledge are the eldest sons of a preacher and a Tennessee housewife. The firstborn, Cage, is the golden boy-star athlete and scholar, adventurous, handsome, and preternaturally popular. Nick is the quiet, late-blooming middle son, and Harper, ten years younger, chases after his older siblings, trying not to be left out. Then comes the terrible day in July 1987. Tragedy strikes-and the breakdown of the family begins...

The ensuing years will be an extraordinary test of strength, courage, faith, and will as each member of the family tries to cope in the face of unspeakable sadness. Cage, racked with guilt and grief, goes into a tailspin that ultimately leads to a diagnosis of bipolar disorder. He careens from dazzling mania to delusional depression, and from grim institutions to promising comebacks. An early success on Wall Street, Harper grudgingly sticks by his brother, at the same time losing himself in vodka, cocaine, and the thrill of the chase. Their father, Franklin, now a bishop, agonizes over his ability to console others while unable to save his own sons. Their mother, Margaret, ever tenacious, refuses to retreat into the past, focusing instead on how to heal her fractured family.

Poignant, often funny, and always moving, Cage's Bend is a rich, multilayered story that explores the conflicting nature of family: the competitiveness, resentment, and filial devotion that engulf brothers...and the heartbreaking and sometimes painful decisions that parents of grown children face. With this extraordinary novel, Carter Coleman emerges as one of the most memorable and talented new voices to come out of the American South, an author unafraid to question when it's best to help someone we love, and when it's best to let go.