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.
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