Colour Of Lightning
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4.0 • 2 Ratings
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
At the end of the Civil War, Britt Johnson, a freed black man, travels with his family from Kentucky to start a new life in Texas. But this wild country holds dangers of its own. When his wife and children are captured during an Indian raid, Britt vows to bring them home or die trying. But his determination and courage quickly land him in the thick of a battle he wants no part of -- the struggle between the U.S. government and the Kiowa and Comanche tribes, whose land, freedom and culture are threatened.
Paulette Jiles, winner of the Canadian Authors Association Award, the Governor General’s Award and the Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize, returns with a story that is grounded in history but that echoes the classic myths. Powerful and nuanced, by turns as beautiful and unforgiving as the frontier itself, The Colour of Lightning is an ambitious and striking novel that confirms Jiles as one of Canada’s finest writers.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The author of Stormy Weather and Enemy Women returns with a lively exploration of revenge, dedication and betrayal set mainly in Kentucky and Texas near the end of the Civil War. Britt Johnson is a free black man traveling with a larger band of white settlers in search of a better life for his wife, Mary, and their children, despite the many perils of the journey itself. After a war party of 700 Comanche and Kiowa scalp, rape and murder many of the whites, Mary and her children get separated from Britt and become the property of a Native named Gonkon. Britt must wait through the winter before he can set out to rescue and reclaim his wife and children, only to discover that not only does he not have enough money to bargain with the Indians but also that his own family's fate has as much to do with land disputes and treaties as it does with his determination to get revenge. Jiles writes like she owns the frontier, and in this multifaceted, riveting and full of danger novel, she does.
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