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News of the World

Paulette Jiles

291 pages

A spare, dust-swept journey through post-Civil War Texas that slowly reveals the tender, healing power of an unlikely found family.

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What it feels like

Reading this novel feels like riding in a slow-moving wagon across a vast, unforgiving landscape, where the silence between two people gradually transforms into profound understanding. The prose is spare and unadorned, stripping away quotation marks so that dialogue and description bleed together into a seamless, rhythmic flow. It is a deeply atmospheric experience, steeped in the dust and danger of post-Civil War Texas, yet the prevailing mood is one of quiet, unsentimental tenderness. The narrative moves at a steady pace, punctuated by sudden bursts of tension, but its true momentum comes from the emotional thaw between a weary old man and a traumatized child. It will deeply satisfy readers who love character-driven historical fiction, elegiac Westerns, and stories where harsh environments forge enduring bonds of chosen family.

Mood
  • dust-swept
  • melancholic
  • tender
  • atmospheric
Tone
  • unsentimental
  • compassionate
  • elegiac
  • observant
Pace
steady
Themes
found family · healing power of storytelling · aftermath of war · cultural displacement · moral duty
The writing
Spare, lyrical, and unadorned, utilizing a seamless flow without quotation marks to blend dialogue and description.
The arc
Moves from solitary detachment and mutual wariness to a profound, life-altering bond of chosen family.
Who it's for
Readers who appreciate character-driven historical fiction, quiet Westerns, and stories of unlikely companions finding solace in one another.
Content notes
  • gun violence
  • child trauma
  • historical racism
  • death of family members

About the book

In the wake of the Civil War, Captain Jefferson Kyle Kidd travels through northern Texas, giving live readings from newspapers to paying audiences hungry for news of the world. An elderly widower who has lived through three wars and fought in two of them, the captain enjoys his rootless, solitary existence. In Wichita Falls, he is offered a $50 gold piece to deliver a young orphan to her relatives in San Antonio. Four years earlier, a band of Kiowa raiders killed Johanna's parents and sister; sparing the little girl, they raised her as one of their own. Recently rescued by the U.S. army, the ten-year-old has once again been torn away from the only home she knows. Their 400-mile journey south through unsettled territory and unforgiving terrain proves difficult and at times dangerous. Johanna has forgotten the English language, tries to escape at every opportunity, throws away her shoes, and refuses to act "civilized." Yet as the miles pass, the two lonely survivors tentatively begin to trust each other, forming a bond that marks the difference between life and death in this treacherous land. Arriving in San Antonio, the reunion is neither happy nor welcome. The captain must hand Johanna over to an aunt and uncle she does not remember -- strangers who regard her as an unwanted burden. A respectable man, Captain Kidd is faced with a terrible choice: abandon the girl to her fate or become -- in the eyes of the law -- a kidnapper himself.

Description from Open Library.

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