News of the World

This is a departure from my usual reading fare both in terms of content and setting. I am so happy that I tried something different. The story is very interesting and evocative and the writing strikes just the right balance of descriptive and sparse. I had one initial quibble with the writing, but I soon got over it. The author elects to not use quotation marks. At first, I could not figure out who was speaking or if I was even reading dialogue at all. It is the mark of a great story teller that after a couple of chapters I was not aware of the missing quotation marks. I fell into the rhythm and the story and followed along just fine. News of the World takes place in post-civil war Texas beginning in 1870. Captain Jefferson Kyle Kidd, veteran of two wars, is in his early 70's and is a widow. He travels around Texas reading the news from various papers. He is offered a $50 gold piece to return a 10 year old girl to her aunt and uncle in San Antonio. Four years prior, some Kiowa Indians killed her family, kidnapped her, and raised her as their own. Johanna is of German heritage but does not initially remember any German or English. She knows only her Kiowa family and their ways. Captain Kidd needs the money and reluctantly agrees to help. The story follows their harrowing journey from Wichita Falls to San Antonio. They deal with various threats, including some men who want to buy Johanna and make her a prostitute. The Captain also tries to teach her English and more civilized ways so that she will fit in when she returns home. In addition, he struggles with the morality of returning her to "family" she does not know when she clearly wants to be Kiowa. Johanna comes to respect and love the Captain and refers to him as grandpa in her Kiowa language. This story is so sad and beautiful. I was pulled in and really cared about what happened to Johanna and the Captain. I would not be surprised if this is made into a movie, though I think that people should just read the book! In addition to enjoying a gorgeous story, I learned a lot about Texas and the western United States after the Civil War. I was most interested to learn that children were captured and adopted by various Native American tribes. The author states that they appeared to become completely Indian and that they did not readjust when returned to family. There were often tragic consequences. This piques my interest to learn more. News of the World provides the three main things I look for in a great book: interesting story, skilled writing, and exposure to new information.

This was a very detailed step-back-in-time story about the relationship between a former captain and a young captive, newly freed from the Kiowa tribe. I absolutely felt like I was present in the time period. I'm Texan, and the author did a wonderful job painting the scenes, relating the various cultures, and even developing the various villains the pair encountered. Both main characters were very well fleshed out. I liked her writing style, as well. It was difficult to get into the story. Even though I liked the characters, I had a hard time wanting to read every single word. A lot of it was a telling of just what they were doing. I really enjoyed the tidbits revealed from the newspapers he carried and read to the townsfolk in the towns they traveled to. Very cool. It's a decent book that, for me, had a very satisfying ending.

Texas 1870. Seventy-one year old Civil War vet, Captain Kidd, agrees to return Johanna, a 10 year old girl and captive of the Kiowas for the past four years, to her relatives living near San Antonio. The money is good, though there are some negatives. The journey will be 400 miles and will take 3-4 weeks, the route is extremely dangerous, and the girl wants to return to her Kiowa family. And she no longer understands nor speaks English. There is another upside though. The Captain will have opportunities along the way to do his normal work - reading the news to townspeople. Not from local newspapers, so nothing about bake sales, births, deaths, or worst of all, Texas politics. No, the Captain's niche is world news: "News all the way from France. Nobody knew anything about the Franco-Prussian @War but all were jointly amazed by information that had come across the Atlantic to them, here in North Texas, alongside the flooding Red River. They had no idea how it had got here, through what strange lands it had traveled......He read from the Philadelphia Inquirer of Dr. Schliemann's search for windy Troy in Turkey. He read of the telegraph wires from Britain to India, an article in the Calcutta Times forwarded to the London Daily Telegraph....he read of the unfortunate Hansa crushed on the pack ice of the North Pole....This was proving the most popular as he could see by the small gestures of the audience; they bent forward, they fixed their eyes upon him to hear of undiscovered lands in the kingdoms of ice, fabulous beasts, perils overcome, snow people in furry suits." On the trail the Captain and Johanna have rather casual eating arrangements. One night, over barbecue, the Captain notices that she has sauce up to her wrists. Realizing that they will make stops in small towns like Dallas along the way and that they will be eating in a restaurant, the Captain begins lessons on the proper use of knife and fork. Johanna proves to be more clumsy than expected but the Captain feels some progress was made - until Johanna turns and throws her fork into a box stall. A funny scene but author Paulette Jiles morphs it into something else in the very next paragraph. "The Captain's shoulders dropped a fraction of an inch under his black formal coat. He was suddenly overwhelmed with pity for her. Torn from her parents, adopted by a strange culture, given new parents, then sold for a few blankets and some old silverware, now sent to stranger after stranger, crushed into peculiar clothing, surrounded by people of an unknown language and an unknown culture, and now she could not even eat her food without having to use outlandish instruments....He saw her look down at her stained hands and there were tears on her cheeks." There are so many great scenes like the ones mentioned above. It is heart-warming for the reader to witness how the bond between these two slowly develops. But this is 1870's Texas and violence can erupt anywhere, anytime. And so there is a good deal of tension woven throughout the story. Of course, Johanna runs away once or twice, and in the early days the Captain is hesitant to turn his back on her. The tension really amps up though on the trail when coming upon others - the possibilities are endless - outlaws, fellow travelers, soldiers, raiders, vigilantes, Comanche, Kiowa. Such encounters are infrequent but any one of them could have a fatal ending. The girl, the horses, even the Captain can sense, and sometimes smell, the unseen presence of others hidden only a few miles away..... It's a great story, expertly told. A book to be treasured and re-read. This is my first Jiles, and before I had finished it, I added three others by her to my reading list. "News of the World" is short-listed (five books are finalists) for this year's National Book Award which will be announced in November 2016. Highly recommended.

Set in Texas, shortly after the American Civil War, Paulette Giles’ ‘News of the World’ introduces the reader to septuagenarian Captain Jefferson Kyle Kidd, now retired from the US Army, who earns his living by performing readings from newspapers to audiences keen to learn more about what is happening in the wider world and are prepared to pay for it. When he stops at Wichita Falls, the Captain is approached by an acquaintance of his who offers him a fifty dollar golden piece if he will deliver a young girl - whose immediate family was killed and who was captured by Kiowa Indians four years ago - to her relatives near San Antonio. The girl, Johanna, is a golden-haired, blue eyed ten-year-old who has forgotten her own language and is traumatised after being given up to the US Army by her Kiowan captors. Although Captain Kidd knows the journey ahead of them will be perilous, he takes pity on the young girl and agrees to return her to an aunt and uncle she has never seen. On the journey, Captain Kidd’s fears prove warranted; the journey is a difficult and dangerous one where he has to not only take care to keep out of the way of marauding Comanche and Kiowa Indian tribes, but also away from unscrupulous white men keen to relieve him of his money, his wagon and, especially, the golden-haired Johanna. And if that is not enough for the Captain to contend with, there is also Johanna herself who, initially, is intent on making her escape and finding her way back to the tribe who adopted her. A beautifully described and, at times, rather exciting story of the American West, and one which looks at love, friendship, family, duty, loyalty and also about finding one’s own place in the world. Although I am not usually a reader of what I suppose would be termed ‘westerns’, this was an enjoyably absorbing and totally involving read and I loved the way the author portrayed the developing friendship between Johanna and the elderly man she called ‘Kep-dun’. A wonderful, warm and very entertaining story (which I have just discovered has recently been made into a film starring Tom Hanks), this is a novel I have no hesitation in recommending highly. 5 Stars.

Devo ancora leggere questo libro, per scoprire se la storia è riportata tale e quale nel film, ma ho comprato questo oggetto proprio grazie al film con Tom Hanks che mi è piaciuto e mi ha fatto scoprire che nasce dal libro di Paulette Jiles.

Pauline Jiles does an amazing job of conveying the thoughts of the captain as he embarks on the difficult job of taking a German girl who was taken by the Kiowa from her family back to her relatives. The story I’d to believably and engagingly. After having seen the effective film version I was happy to read the print version. I would unhesitatingly recommend this book

Captain Jefferson Kyle Kidd ist Wittwer, Vater zweier erwachsener Töchter und verdient sein Geld, nachdem er seine Druckerei verkaufen musste, mit dem Vorlesen aus Zeitungen. Für eine kurze Zeit möchte er die Menschen mit den Nachrichten aus fernen Ländern in andere Welten entführen, weg von den Problemen vor ihrer Haustür und er macht dies mit Freude. Nach einem seiner Vorlesungen bittet ihn sein Freund Britt Johnson um einen Gefallen. Für 50 Dollar soll er ein kleines Mädchen namens Johanna Leonberger, das mit nur 6 Jahren vom Stamm der Kiowa entführt, dort aufgewachsen und jetzt mit 10 wieder freigekauft wurde, nach Castroville zu ihren verbliebenen deutschen Verwandten im Süden Texas bringen. Captain Kidd sagt zu und schon am nächsten Tag geht die lange, gefährliche Reise los. Sie führt sie durch einsame Prärien, feindselige Städte, sie werden unterwegs angegriffen und überhaupt lauern immer und überall Gefahren. Johanna versteht kaum etwas von dem was Captain Kidd sagt, denn sie spricht hautsächlich nur noch Kiowa. Sie erinnert sich nur bruchstückhaft an deutsche Worte. Captain Kidd bringt ihr etwas Englisch bei und versucht sie auch behutsam wieder an die Sitten und Gepflogenheiten der Gesellschaft zu gewöhnen. Langsam aber sicher wächst ihm Johanna ans Herz und er macht sich Sorgen was aus ihr wird. Kann sie wirklich einfach so wieder integriert werden? Oder wird sie das so wie viele andere junge Rückkehrer ins Unglück stürzen?📖 Welch eine schöne kleine Geschichte. Ich lese eigentlich sonst nie Bücher, die im Wilden Westen spielen aber irgendwie wurde doch kürzlich mein Interesse für dieses Genre wieder geweckt und auf der Suche nach einem passenden Buch stolperte ich über diesen Roman. Es ist eine ruhige, gleichzeitig aber auch eine abenteuerliche Geschichte. Ein alter Mann, der sich auf eine letzte gefährliche Reise begibt um ein kleines Mädchen zu ihren verbliebenen Verwandten zu bringen. Eigentlich fühlt er sich nicht mehr fit genug dafür. Doch weil er durch seine Töchter Erfahrungen mit kleinen Mädchen hat und Mitleid mit Johanna empfindet kann er die Bitte seines Freundes nicht abschlagen. Ein wirklich ungleiches Gespann macht sich auf den Weg gen Süden. Johanna ist wild, unberechenbar, gleichzeitig aber auch sehr scheu. Sie köpft ungefragt die Hühner eines Besenmachers und versteht nicht, warum die Menschen sich in steinernden Gebäuden verbarrikadieren. Doch langsam aber sicher nähern sich die zwei an, werden Freunde. Diese Reise ist mehr für die beiden. Sie verändert sie und bringt sie einer unerwarteten Zukunft entgegen. Eine wirklich schöne, herzerwärmende Geschichte. Interessant fand ich sie auch deswegen, weil der Zusammenprall der verschieden Kulturen damals auch gut dargestellt wurde. Die vielen Stämme der indigenen Völker, die versuchten ihr Land zu verteidigen, die amerikanische Bevölkerung, gebeutelt vom Bürgerkrieg und untereinander immer noch gespalten in Sachen Politik und dem Umgang mit den schwarzen Mitbürgern, die neuen europäischen Siedler, in deren Städte kaum ein Wort englisch gesprochen wird. Alle paar Meilen verändert sich die Welt um Captain Kidd und Johanna und sie müssen sich immer wieder neu anpassen. Der Schreibstil liest sich im Englischen trotz fehlender Anführungszeichen sehr gut und flott. Die Kapitel sind angenehm kurz und vorne befindet sich sogar eine Karte, mit der Route ihrer Reise, was mir ebenfalls sehr gefallen hat. Der Buchschnitt ist interessant gezackt gestaltet. Ich hatte Freude am Lesen und konnte das Buch tatsächlich kaum aus der Hand legen. Jedoch, wie mein letztes gelesenes Buch "Adrift" aus dem HarperCollins Verlag, hätte ich auch hier gerne die Chance gehabt, es auf Deutsch lesen zu können. Ich war ziemlich überrascht, dass es bisher nicht übersetzt wurde. Denn im englischsprachigen Raum ist es mit insgesamt rund 67000 guten Bewertungen auf goodreads und amazon sehr beliebt und wurde ja jetzt sogar sehr passend besetzt mit Tom Hanks und der deutschen Schauspielerin Helena Zengel (bekannt aus "Systemsprenger") verfilmt. Wirklich sehr schade, dass diese schöne kleine Geschichte den deutschen Lesern vorenthalten wird. Das Buch hat mir jedenfalls sehr gefallen, sodass ich gerne noch mehr von Paulette Jiles lesen würde. Ich kann es nur empfehlen und bin auf die Verfilmung sehr gespannt🙂

Remarquable roman sur la relation entre un vieil homme et une enfant captive qui a adopté la conception de vie de ses ravisseurs Un livre sobre, puissant qui démontre l’art de Paulette Jiles.