{"product_id":"the-color-of-lightning-a-novel-isbn-9780061720055","title":"The Color of Lightning: A Novel","description":"\u003cp\u003e“Meticulously researched and beautifully crafted.... This is glorious work.” — \u003cem\u003eWashington Post\u003c\/em\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“A gripping, deeply relevant book.” — \u003cem\u003eNew York Times Book Review\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e From Paulette Jiles, author of the critically acclaimed \u003cem\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/em\u003e bestsellers \u003cem\u003eEnemy Women\u003c\/em\u003e and \u003cem\u003eStormy Weather\u003c\/em\u003e, 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 Prize—one of Canada’s most prestigious literary awards—\u003cem\u003eThe Color of Lightning\u003c\/em\u003e is a beautifully rendered and unforgettable re-examination of one of the darkest periods in U.S. history.\u003c\/p\u003e | \u003cp\u003eIn 1863, the War Between the States creeps slowly yet inevitably toward its bloody conclusion—and eastern thoughts are already turning to different wars and enemies. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eSearching for a life and future, former Kentucky slave Britt Johnson is venturing west into unknown territory with his wife, Mary, and their three children—wary but undeterred by sobering tales of atrocities inflicted upon those who trespass against the Comanche and the Kiowa. Settling on the Texas plains, the Johnson family hopes to build on the dreams that carried them from the Confederate South to this new land of possibility—dreams that are abruptly shattered by a brutal Indian raid upon the settlement while Britt is away establishing a business. Returning to face the unthinkable—his friends and neighbors slain or captured, his eldest son dead, his beloved Mary severely damaged and enslaved, and his remaining children absorbed into an alien society that will never relinquish its hold on them—the heartsick freedman vows not to rest until his family is whole again.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eSamuel Hammond follows a different road west. A Quaker whose fortune is destroyed by a capricious act of an inscrutable God, he has resigned himself to the role the Deity has chosen for him. As a new agent for the Office of Indian Affairs, it is Hammond's goal to ferret out corruption and win justice for the noble natives now in his charge. But the proud, stubborn people refuse to cease their raids, free their prisoners, and accept the farming implements and lifestyle the white man would foist upon them, adding fuel to smoldering tensions that threaten to turn a man of peace, faith, and reason onto a course of terrible retribution.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eA soaring work of the imagination based on oral histories of the post–Civil War years in North Texas, Paulette Jiles's \u003cem\u003eThe Color of Lightning\u003c\/em\u003e is at once an intimate look into the hearts and hopes of tragically flawed human beings and a courageous reexamination of a dark American history.\u003c\/p\u003e | \u003cp\u003e“Elegiac in tone, the novel is ful of fierce, austere poetry, as well as hyms to the Texas landscape.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eNew York Times Book Review\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“[A] meticulously researched and beautifully crafted story . . . this is glorious work.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eWashington Post on THE COLOR OF LIGHTNING\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Jiles’s spare and melancholy prose is the perfect language for this tale in which survival necessitates brutality. She is also an equal-opportunity storyteller, describing events from the point of view of settlers and Native Americans. Her descriptions of life in the Native-American camps are some of the most compelling sections of the book.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eSeattle Times on THE COLOR OF LIGHTNING\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Jiles’ spare and melancholy prose is the perfect language for this tale in which survival necessitates brutality.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eSeattle Times on THE COLOR OF LIGHTNING\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Jiles colors... historical facts in prose that captures the imagination, allowing her audience to understand the diverse cultures struggling to coexist in this seemingly harsh land.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eHistorical Novels Review\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Historical novels are by nature elegies. This is especially true of novels of the Old West, and never more so than in the form Cormac McCarthy has refined—call it the Poet’s Western. Paulette Jiles, an accomplished poet as well as a novelist, lodges \u003ci\u003eThe Color of Lightning\u003c\/i\u003e deep within this genre, packing her prose with inventive metaphor, luxuriant detail, and flights of fierce, austere poetry, as well as hymns to the Texas landscape. . . . [Jiles’s] roving omniscience gives the novel the breadth and busyness of a Diego Rivera mural . . . a gripping, deeply relevant book.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eNew York Times Book Review on THE COLOR OF LIGHTNING\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“A gripping, deeply relevant book.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eNew York Times Book Review on THE COLOR OF LIGHTNING\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Paulette Jiles has created a potent, harrowing story about real people with that genuine heroism that makes legendry pale by comparison....Jiles writes with an unerring poet’s touch.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eDallas Morning News on THE COLOR OF LIGHTNING\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Jiles never reduces her cast of characters to stock stereotypes, tackling a traumatic and tragic episode in American history with sensitivity and assurance.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eBooklist on THE COLOR OF LIGHTNING\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Jiles is an ardent student of history, and through extensive research is able to reimagine life in post-Civil War Texas and create believable, multi-layered characters with remarkable verisimilitude.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eSan Antonio Express-News\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“A remarkably engaging story. . . .  Jiles’s description is memorable and evocative.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eDenver Post on THE COLOR OF LIGHTNING\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Stick a thumb into any page of Paulette Jiles’s The Color of Lightning and you’ll pull out a fine prose plum.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eTexas Monthly on THE COLOR OF LIGHTNING\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“A rousing, character-driven tale.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eKirkus Reviews on THE COLOR OF LIGHTNING\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"William Morrow Large Print","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44887875059941,"sku":"NP9780061720055","price":27.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9780061720055.jpg?v=1730227643","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/products\/the-color-of-lightning-a-novel-isbn-9780061720055","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}