Soon to be a Major Motion Picture
National Book Award Finalist—Fiction
In the aftermath of the Civil War, an aging itinerant news reader agrees to transport a young captive of the Kiowa back to her people in this exquisitely rendered, morally complex, multilayered novel of historical fiction from the author of Enemy Women that explores the boundaries of family, responsibility, honor, and trust.… the boundaries of family, responsibility, honor, and trust.
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.
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Exciting ending. A bunch of bizarre characters. Did this occupation of an itinerant news reader exist?
One of the members from my book club selected this book. I wasn’t sure if I would be interested in the story but the book surprised me.
The characters were likable, the story was original and well written. It was an easy read and kept my interest all the way through.
I would definitely recommend.
One of the best books and audios of 2018. The story clings to you and you have such sympathy for the characters. Johanna and the Captain forge a bond that cannot be broken.
Very slow for me, the story is different from most books I read, enjoyed that part.
This book invites you in to life in the “Wild West” of Texas and Oklahoma in the 1800’s with adventure and danger around each corner. This is not the story we get in movies, but a true depiction of the good and bad in people trying to carve a life in the untamed west.
I liked this book so much that I finished it, turned to page one and read it again.
Blurb:
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.
http://www.darlenejonesauthor.com
I had no idea that there were people who carried the news with them and shared it with whomever they stayed with as they traveled across the country. Sort of like a pony express for news
I loved this book! You enter the world of Texas just after the Civil War and meet two characters you grow to love. I didn’t want to leave these two at the end!
I don’t know how it took me so long to find this book. I probably would have gone along in blissful innocence if my book club hadn’t decided to read it. I love a good Western, but there aren’t many good Westerns out there. My favorite is “Lonesome Dove,” and this is a close second. Seventy-something Captain Kidd, a soft-hearted veteran of several wars, agrees to accompany a ten-year-old girl back to her family, which involves a trip by wagon from North Texas to South. The girl, Johanna, had been kidnapped by Kiowa four years before, and she didn’t remember a thing about her earlier life, not even its language. The action starts here. Not only does Captain Kidd have to deal with a child who definitely doesn’t want to be there and might even scalp him, but he also has to cope with desperadoes who would love to take the child into sexual slavery. He’s an old man who just wants to travel the world and read the news to people in small towns. Nevertheless, he rises to the occasion, and I won’t tell you anything else, except that there are numerous twists in this lovely, haunting book.
Have a seat and visit a time long past, with characters who will imprint themselves on your imagination. Oh, did I mention that it was a finalist for the National Book Award in 2016?
A magnificent book that has won so many well deserved high awards. I loved reading this book. An elderly man who travels the country to read the newspapers to those living in widespread post Civil War areas of expansion agrees to take a little girl, rescued from Native Americans back with him. The story of their travel home together is one of beauty, human resiliance, and integrity. And the writing is simultaneously spare and lyrically eloquent.
I particularly enjoyed this book because it is based on Texas history. My grandmother grew up in the area of this story just a few years after this takes place, so it gave me some background on what Texas was like at that time. I liked the two main characters who overcame obstacles and preconceived notions about each other to triumph in the end.
Great book
Informative and interesting, this book tells the matching (in fact intertwining) stories of a traveling news-reader–which in itself was fascinating to learn about–and a young white girl stolen by the Indians as a small child and now trying to make her way back into “white civilization.” These two people come together in this book and the result is nothing short of engrossing. Good world-building that really gives you a feel for how it must have been in the late eight hundreds out west when law and order was still more of a concept than a reality and there was much danger around every corner.
It was an interesting story, not like anything I have read before. He definitely went on an adventure and it kept me reading.
This is a great story of a man who travels the Wild West of late 1800’s Texas. He makes a living by charging admission to hear him read the news of the day in towns he passes through. Along the way he is charged with bringing a young orphan to her family. I wish I hadn’t read it so I could have the pleasure of reading it again without knowing the story already. Great story!
This captured my attention immediately and I felt so enriched by reading about that time period through the narrative of this book.
I did not enjoy the writing style at all. And there were not quotations around words versus thoughts. Plus the ending comes out of the blue and jumps forward way too far. Mundane details were repeated over and over, as if to beat the reader over the head with them.
Read it twice! Very interesting characters and place in history. Thought provoking!
Reading the news to people and getting paid for it what an idea. It was a llittle slice of history that I had never thought about
A quiet book of immense proportions, I wanted to turn back to the beginning as soon as I finished it. Jefferson Kidd is a news reader, traveling from small town to small town in post-Civil War Texas, reading the news of the world to interested citizens. In one town, he is asked to return a 10-year-old girl to her family after she was surrendered by the Kiowa tribe that captured her. The odyssey taking them from northern to southern Texas is sometimes a nail-biter, but always interesting as the reader gets to know the characters. A wonderful book not to be missed!