From the Author of the National Book Award Finalist News of the World

“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 Prize—one of Canada’s most prestigious literary awards—The Color of Lightning is a beautifully rendered and unforgettable re-examination of one of the darkest periods in U.S. history.

PAULETE JILES was born and raised in the Missouri Ozarks and moved to Canada in 1969. She spent eight years as a journalist for the CBC in northern Ontario. She is the bestselling author of Enemy Women, a New York Times Notable Book, and winner of the Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize and the Women Writing the West’s Willa Literary Award. She has also won the Governor General’s Award for Poetry. Paulette Jiles lives in the Texas hill country near San Antonio.

Paulette Jiles' profile page

“A gripping, deeply relevant book.” — New York Times Book Review on THE COLOR OF LIGHTNING

“[A] meticulously researched and beautifully crafted story . . . this is glorious work.” — Washington Post on THE COLOR OF LIGHTNING

“Jiles’ spare and melancholy prose is the perfect language for this tale in which survival necessitates brutality.” — Seattle Times on THE COLOR OF LIGHTNING

“Jiles never reduces her cast of characters to stock stereotypes, tackling a traumatic and tragic episode in American history with sensitivity and assurance.” — Booklist on THE COLOR OF LIGHTNING

“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.” — San Antonio Express-News

“A rousing, character-driven tale.” — Kirkus Reviews on THE COLOR OF LIGHTNING

“Stick a thumb into any page of Paulette Jiles’s The Color of Lightning and you’ll pull out a fine prose plum.” — Texas Monthly on THE COLOR OF LIGHTNING

“A remarkably engaging story. . . . Jiles’s description is memorable and evocative.” — Denver Post on THE COLOR OF LIGHTNING

“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.” — Dallas Morning News on THE COLOR OF LIGHTNING

“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.” — Historical Novels Review

“Elegiac in tone, the novel is ful of fierce, austere poetry, as well as hyms to the Texas landscape.” — New York Times Book Review