News of the World

In this beautifully rendered, morally complex, multilayered work of historical fiction from the author of Enemy Women, set in the aftermath of the Civil War, an elderly travelling news reader agrees to bring a young Kiowa captive back to her people. The novel explores the limits of family, responsibility, honour, and trust.

Following the Civil War, Captain Jefferson Kyle Kidd travels around northern Texas, doing live newspaper readings for paying audiences who are eager to learn about global events. An elderly widower who has lived through three wars and fought in two of them, the captain enjoys his rootless, solitary existence.

He is promised $50 in gold in Wichita Falls in exchange for taking a little orphan to her San Antonio family. 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. The ten-year-old, who was just saved by the American soldiers, has once again been ripped from the only home she has ever known.

Their 400-mile journey south through unsettled territory and unforgiving terrain proves difficult and at times dangerous. Johanna refuses to behave "civilised," has forgotten how to speak English, throws away her shoes, and seeks to flee whenever possible. 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.

The reunion is neither pleasant nor welcoming when it arrives in San Antonio. The captain must hand Johanna over to an aunt and uncle she does not remember—strangers who regard her as an unwanted burden. Captain Kidd, a decent guy, must make the horrible decision to either let the girl die or turn into a kidnapper himself in the eyes of the authorities.