"The gateway to the Americas," Miami is the third most visited city in the U.S. National Geographic Traveler: Miami & the Keys presents the astonishing diversity of the city’s ethnic neighborhoods, culture, and architecture, as well as the allure of its surrounding beaches, wetlands, and the bewitching coral isles of Key West.
David Raterman is the author of "The River Panj" as well as travel books for National Geographic and Knopf/Random House. He is a features correspondent for the South Florida Sun Sentinel and worked two years for CARE in ex-Soviet Tajikistan along the Afghanistan border. For seven months he worked in a clinic that made artificial limbs for soldiers and war victims in Armenia.
"David Raterman has published what may be the first thriller set in Afghanistan on 9-11 with 'The River Panj.' Raterman's debut uses the world events of Sept. 11, 2001, to show a personal tale of Derek Braun, a former Notre Dame football star who has found a calling doing relief work in Afghanistan. As terrorists shock the world, Derek is on his own when his fiancée and a colleague are kidnapped."
- Oline Cogdill, South Florida Sun Sentinel
"There's a new voice in the world of thriller writers ... David Raterman knows his stuff, because he's walked the dusty roads of Central Asia and he's looked al-Qaida mujahedeen in the eyes and lived to tell about it. Raterman is the real deal. Just read the first few pages of The River Panj and you'll discover an exciting new writer."
- David Hagberg, best-selling thriller novelist and three-time Edgar nominee
After studying at Ohio University's Scripps School of Journalism, Raterman backpacked around much of the world for seven years, working odd jobs to support himself. He speaks Russian fluently.
Raterman lived in Chicago until he was nine and then grew up in Cincinnati, where most of his family and friends remain. He married a Russian TV writer and they live in Fort Lauderdale with their twin daughters. He is a member of The International Thriller Writers.
