While setting this prize-winning standard on the home front, Cose has been expanding his repertoire. This year he traveled to Brazil to cover the emerging movement there to win social equality for citizens of African descent and to South Africa, where he met with Archbishop Desmond Tutu and examined the difficult work of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which is trying to sort out crimes and reparations for apartheid. And as if this weren’t ambitious enough, Cose–already the author of several books of penetrating social criticism, including his recent “Color-Blind: Seeing Beyond Race in a Race-Obsessed World”–also penned a mystery novel this year. In “The Best Defense,” which will be available in bookstores in September, Cose weaves the racial tensions he reports on in real life into a powerful courtroom drama of murder and suspense. “In a way,” he says, “it is more satisfying to write fiction because you can get beyond the one-dimensional issue. This book is about affirmative action, but it is also about justice writ large.” We congratulate Ellis Cose on these achievements and know that his many fans among NEWSWEEK readers, like his colleagues, are looking forward to having one more way to enjoy his talents.
