Sunday, October 14, 2018

NEWS OF THE WORLD- OCTOBER 2018 BOOK SELECTION


News of the World by Paulette Jiles is another selection made by my Book Club  and another revelation. The novel takes place after the Civil War while the nation is still in a state of unrest. Texas is under martial law in a bid to contain a lawless situation. Captain Jefferson Kyle Kidd, seventy-one, widower and veteran of three wars, makes his living going from town to town in Texas, giving live readings of newspaper articles to groups of interested listeners. Some of his audience cannot read, while others simply prefer to “hear” what is happening.

While in Wichita Falls, near the then Indian Border, he is approached by an acquaintance. He is persuaded to deliver a child, a ten year-old girl, to relatives living in a small town near San Antonio. This child is a rescued captive of Kiowa Indians, having lived with them for four years. Her true family, German immigrants, were brutally slaughtered in front of her. This would be a dangerous and long journey under any circumstances, but there is an additional problem. Johanna Leonberger, the little girl, considers herself a Kiowa and did not want to be rescued. 

The novel follows their four-hundred-mile journey, facing thieves, child-traffickers, murderous Comanche and Kiowa and the Federal Army to name a few. The formation of the bond between the Kep-dun, as she calls him, and Johanna is inevitable but has consequences when he must deliver her to her less than desirable relatives.                  
Not to be missed.

Highly Recommend.


No comments:

Post a Comment