Historical novels often bury the reader in an avalanche of research that fails to move the story forward. “They were lying among rocks and small spiny agarita a lizard fled in a running of dark chevrons.” Or, “Above and behind them the Dipper turned on its great handle as if to pour night itself out onto the dreaming continent and each of its seven stars gleamed from between the fitful passing clouds.” The author is an accomplished poet, as her lyrical language attests on every page. Jiles’ descriptive powers are as mighty as the land she paints. The bond that forms between the captain and his charge is deep and deeply affecting. She’s also a chicken thief, resists wearing shoes, and will never fully regain a native speaker’s command of English.

At a crucial moment, the girl proves to be a fearless warrior. Over time, the captain and Johanna come to rely on and trust one another. The narrative is peppered with dry humor and infused with equal measures of morality and common sense. This enthralling quest pulls the reader in from the instant the pair takes off in an “excursion wagon, painted a dark and glossy green and in gold letters on the side, it said Curative Waters Sulphur Springs, Texas.” This “jaunty little vehicle,” the reader hopes, will have magical powers to protect the travelers as they pull away from Wichita Falls into unseen dangers. The captain, while at times exasperated by his charge, is a tender-hearted man who does his best to protect her, understand her, and ease her painful transition back into the “civilized” world. She mourns her Kiowa mother, her family, her nomadic life. The girl, Johanna Leonberger, is sullen, prone to running away, and remembers nothing before her time with the Kiowa tribe. Despite grave reservations, Kidd agrees to make the journey. After a Wichita Falls reading, a free black man of the captain’s acquaintance offers him a $50 reward for the return of the rescued child to her only relatives some 400 miles away in Castroville, near San Antonio.

The captain - a veteran of two wars whose printing business has gone bust, whose wife has died, and whose daughters are grown and married - earns his living reading the world’s news to rapt audiences in the territories of North Texas. Set in post-Civil War Texas, Paulette Jiles’ latest novel, News of the World, tells the story of 71-year-old Captain Jefferson Kyle Kidd and his unlikely ward, a 10-year-old girl rescued by the U.S.

News of the world paulette