Paulette Jiles

""Meticulously researched and beautifully crafted.... This is glorious work." -- Washington Post "A gripping, deeply relevant book." -- New York Times Book Review From Paulette Jiles, author of the critically acclaimed New York Times bestsellers Enemy Women and Stormy Weather , comes a stirring work of fiction set on the untamed Texas frontier in the aftermath of the Civil War. One of only twelve books longlisted for the 2009 Scotiabank Giller...

"In the aftermath of the Civil War, an aging itinerant news reader agrees to transport a young captive of the Kiowa back to her people in this exquisitely rendered, morally complex, multilayered novel of historical fiction from the author of Enemy Women that explores the boundaries of family, responsibility, honor, and trust.In the wake of the Civil War, Captain Jefferson Kyle Kidd travels through northern Texas, giving live readings from newspapers...

"Union soldier John Chenneville suffered a traumatic head wound in battle. His recovery took the better part of a year as he struggled to regain his senses and mobility. By the time he returned home, the Civil War was over, but tragedy awaited. John's beloved sister and her family had been brutally murdered. Their killer goes by many names. He fought for the North in the late unpleasantness, and wore a badge in the name of the law. But the man John...

In the coming centuries the world's population has exploded. The earth's crowded with cities, animals are nearly all extinct, and drought's so widespread that water is rationed. There are no maps, no borders, no numbered years, and no freedom, except for an elite few. It's a harsh world for an orphan like Nadia Stepan, and she dreams of a green vacation spot called Lighthouse Island, in a place called the Pacific Northwest.

Five years after the Civil War, Captain Kidd moves from town to town reading the news and telling stories. In Texas, he crosses paths with Johanna, a ten-year-old taken in by the Kiowa people six years earlier. She is being returned to her biological aunt and uncle against her will. Kidd agrees to deliver the child where the law says she belongs. As they travel hundreds of miles, the two will face tremendous challenges of both human and natural forces...