cover image News of the World

News of the World

Paulette Jiles, read by Grover Gardner. Brilliance Audio, , unabridged, 5 CDs, 6 hrs., $29.99 ISBN 978-1-5113-5677-0

Reader Gardner proves yet again that he is one of the best voice actors in the audiobook industry today with his reading of Jiles’s evocative story of post–Civil War Texas. His deep, warm voice is such a perfect match for the character of the elderly widowed Captain Jefferson Kyle Kidd that listeners immediately fall under his spell. Gardner’s rich vocal tones and his faultless timing of Jiles’s prose rhythms draw listeners quickly and deeply into the premise of the story and the lives of its characters. In 1870, the captain is called upon to escort 10-year-old Joanna—rescued from the Kiowa tribe that abducted and raised her—to distant relatives in northern Texas. As they travel in his rickety wagon on their 400-mile journey they share dangerous adventures and form a bond that leaves them with difficult decisions when they finally reach their destination. A Morrow hardcover. (Oct.)