News of the World
Paulette Jiles. Morrow, $22.99 (224p) ISBN 978-0-06-240920-1
Jiles delivers a taut, evocative story of post–Civil War Texas in this riveting drama of a redeemed captive of the Kiowa tribe. Captain Jefferson Kyle Kidd, an elderly widower, earns his living traveling around, reading news stories to gatherings of townspeople. While reading in Wichita Falls one evening in the winter of 1870, he sees an old acquaintance. Britt Johnson, the main character in Jiles’s The Color of Lightning, has just come through Indian Country with his crew. The men are returning a 10-year-old girl to her aunt and uncle in Castroville after she spent four years with the Kiowa. A free black man, Britt is reluctant to have a white child in his custody. He persuades the Captain to escort young Johanna on the remainder of the three-week journey. The Captain, who has grown daughters of his own, at first feels sorry for the girl. Johanna considers herself Kiowa; she chafes at wearing shoes and a dress, struggles to pronounce American words. Challenges and dangers confront the two during their journey, and they become attached. Jiles unfolds the stories of the Captain and Johanna, past and present, with the smooth assuredness of a burnished fireside tale, demonstrating that she is a master of the western. Agent: Liz Darhansoff, Darhansoff & Verrill. (Oct.)
Details
Reviewed on: 08/22/2016
Genre: Fiction
Compact Disc - 978-1-0941-9233-8
Compact Disc - 978-1-5113-5677-0
Compact Disc - 978-1-5113-5680-0
Hardcover - 292 pages - 978-1-4104-8953-1
MP3 CD - 978-1-0941-9234-5
MP3 CD - 978-1-5113-5681-7
MP3 CD - 978-1-5113-5679-4
Other - 304 pages - 978-0-06-240922-5
Paperback - 978-7-5217-0982-7
Paperback - 978-986-319-487-3
Paperback - 240 pages - 978-0-06-240921-8
Paperback - 978-1-4328-3997-0
