Paulette Jiles

"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...

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 as a storyteller. 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 as they search...