When I read about a book online, my memory soon becomes blurry who or where I heard about it from. But in the case of a IRL recommendation, it’s a lot clearer. This book was recommended to me by my American godmother, and it did not disappoint. In retrospect I’m slightly surprised that she’d read this book as she’s not at all into Texas or the West. I think this book title came up after I told her that I’d read and enjoyed Where the Lost Wander by Amy Hamon, or These is my words, the diary of Sarah Agnes Prine by Nancy E. Turner. This one book is more intimate but just as great, and it will surely feature among my favorites for this year!
News of the World present an unlikely couple: an old man in his early 70s, Captain Kidd, and a young orphan girl who had lived with the Kiowa after they’d killed her parents. Johanna is 10 years old, but she has forgotten how to speak English and to live among “civilized” people. Captain Kidd is given the mission to take the girl to her only living relatives, 400 miles away. A widower with grown daughters and a survivor of two wars, Captain Kidd makes a living by traveling around and reading aloud the titled “news of the world” into small communities of North Texas.
The book is set in the aftermath of the Civil war and it really struck me how little I knew and understood about the larger impact of the war on the US. In my European mind, the Civil war was largely separate from the Western communities, but it turns out that’s not true.
I really liked the way the trust is slowly built between these two people. It was really moving and I almost shed a tear at the end! (that’s a pretty rare occurrence for me, I’m not a book crier, more of a movie crier). I liked the quiet way the writer makes you think about the meaning of family (the one you’re born into, the one from blood, the one from fate, the one from choice and love). I also loved that she backed her book upon solid research on the fate of kids taken to their families by Kiowa or other tribes, and the non-judgmental way she balances the fate of the tribes with the one of the local settlers.
Highly recommended. I need to investigate other books by Paulette Jiles. Any recommendation?
Smithereens 
I loved this book. I cried – but that’s not unusual for me! I’ve actually not read anything else by her, though.