HIGH POINT – In the spring of 2006, Austin Carty claimed his 15 minutes of fame as one of the castaways on the hit reality show, “Survivor: Panama.”

Today, nearly four years after being banished from the show – after hearing those fateful words, “The tribe has spoken” – the 28-year-old High Point native finds himself trying to survive in a world where he won’t be required to eat bugs or drink cow blood, but where even the grittiest and most determined individuals have been chewed up and spit out.

He’s trying to survive in the publishing world.

Carty’s first book, “High Points and Lows: Life, Faith and Figuring It All Out,” will be released Tuesday, and a slew of book-signings and related appearances will follow.

“I’d be the biggest liar in the world to say there weren’t huge seasons of doubt,” Carty says.

“‘What are you doing, Austin? Why have you continued to do this?’ There was no shortage of people telling me that I was wasting my time and potential. But I really did believe that I had a talent for writing, and more important, I knew I had a passion for it, and I really believed that if I just kept trying and just kept working at honing my craft, pestering agents, pushing people, that eventually it would happen. So to finally see it happen, I feel this combination of excitement and great relief.”

The book, published by Penguin/Plume, features 14 essays that explore Christianity through the eyes of a young man who has struggled to understand his faith and apply it to his life, but who now seems to be on the road to finding his place in the faith world. Written in a folksy, conversational tone – and punctuated with pop culture references and self-deprecating humor – the book has drawn advance praise from those who have read it.

“Austin Carty invites readers to share his most intimate misadventures in faith, doubt, television celebrity and Southern American coming-of-age,” wrote Koren Zailckas, a New York Times best-selling author. “...If St. Augustine watched cable television and drove a Dodge pickup, one wonders if ‘The Confessions’ wouldn’t read like this.”

An example of how Carty uses events in his own life to offer insights about faith is an essay called “Amway-ing for Jesus,” in which he recalls how he got involved with a network marketing program that taught him to view every person as a potential sale and every conversation as a pitch for his product.

“I started noticing how all of my friends were starting to avoid me because they knew I was gonna try to sell them my product,” he recalls.

“And it hit me like a ton of bricks one day that my method in approaching people about my network marketing product was the exact same as my approach when I felt that I was supposed to tell everybody about Jesus. I didn’t know at the time how much misguided arrogance goes into an 18-year-old kid walking up to somebody you’ve never met and saying, ‘I know how you should better live your life.’”

Carty, who developed somewhat of a reputation as “the Christian guy” during his days on “Survivor,” hopes his book will strike a chord with other young Christians and non-Christians alike.

“I think the primary target audience would be 20-something and 30-something Christians who don’t quite know exactly where they fit in the faith conversation, but they know they are in it,” he says.

“But at the same time, I’m really hoping that the book will appeal to a crowd who don’t really identify as being Christians, but that are interested in hearing a Christian voice that is not off-putting and that is presented in a way that is a little bit more palatable than what they’re used to.”

Will Carty succeed? Will he survive?

Time will tell. The book comes out Tuesday, and the tribe is about to speak.