News of the World

Despite many positive reviews, I didn't have any intention to read this book. Historical fiction is not my favorite. But when it made the short list for the National Book Award, I had to see what the fuss was about. Wow! For such a slender book, it packs in plenty of history, humor, and tenderness to satisfy any reader who appreciates quality, contemplative writing. We travel with Captain Jefferson Kyle Kidd, an elderly widower who wanders through 1870s Texas, earning a living by reading the news to rural populations who are hungry for it. Along the way he is hired to deliver a 10-year-old Texan girl who had just been freed from four years of captivity by the Kiowa Indians. At this time in history, barely after the Civil War and while the Indian Wars are still rumbling, the country, especially the west, is a rough and raucous place. The Captain and his young charge Johanna have some narrow escapes, and their bond grows stronger every day. She calls him "Kontah" (Grandfather). They make a wonderful pair, but keep in mind, this is not your average "buddies on a road trip" novel. The writing is spare like the landscape, but not so much that the complexity of the characters is not revealed. Here is my favorite line, which seems to me to be the crux of the book: "Maybe life is just carrying news. Surviving to carry the news. Maybe we have just one message, and it is delivered to us when we are born and we are never sure what it says; it may have nothing to do with us personally but it must be carried by hand through a life, all the way, and at the end handed over, sealed." The message of this book: compassion. Highly recommended.
Reviewed by Kelly Currie