News of The World by Paulette Jiles

News of The World by Paulette Jiles is a novel set in Reconstruction-Era Texas, specifically beginning in 1870 in Texas. The story revolves around Captain Jefferson Kyle Kidd, a 72-year-old widower and veteran news reader who travels through Texas, delivering news from around the world to small, isolated communities for ten cents per person per reading.

The plot thickens when he is tasked with returning a 10-year-old girl, Johanna Leonberger, to her family. Johanna had been kidnapped by the Kiowa tribe at the age of six and raised as one of their own, making her return to her biological family a challenging mission filled with emotional and physical hurdles.

What I liked

The setting was creative, fascinating, and perfect for the novel. We wring our hands over rapid change and crazy politics in the 2020s, but it’s easy to forget that America has always had crazy periods – much worse than now.

The descriptions of Texas and the hill country were rich and beautiful. They made me want to travel there. The author really took historical fiction to a new level of accuracy and richness.

Although it took a while, the author did a good job developing the odd and impossible relationship between a young, captured child and an old, disgruntled, nearly-retired News Reader.

I love the fact that the novel revolves around a profession that makes sense…but I never knew existed – a professional News Reader. I also love the side commentary on the fact that so much of our “news” even now – is just entertainment.

What I Did Not Like

Not a whole lot, it was a lovely, nice novel.