Night Watch

From one of our most accomplished novelists, a mesmerizing story about a mother and daughter seeking refuge in the chaotic aftermath of the Civil War--and a brilliant portrait of family endurance against all odds

"A tour de force." --Tayari Jones, author of An American Marriage

In 1874, in the wake of the War, erasure, trauma, and namelessness haunt civilians and veterans, renegades and wanderers, freedmen and runaways. Twelve-year-old ConaLee, the adult in her family for as long as she can remember, finds herself on a buckboard journey with her mother, Eliza, who hasn't spoken in more than a year. They arrive at the Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum in West Virginia, delivered to the hospital's entrance by a war veteran who has forced himself into their world. There, far from family, a beloved neighbor, and the mountain home they knew, they try to reclaim their lives.

The omnipresent vagaries of war and race rise to the surface as we learn their story: their flight to the highest mountain ridges of western Virginia; the disappearance of ConaLee's father, who left for the War and never returned. Meanwhile, in the asylum, they begin to find a new path. ConaLee pretends to be her mother's maid; Eliza responds slowly to treatment. They get swept up in the life of the facility--the mysterious man they call the Night Watch; the orphan child called Weed; the fearsome woman who runs the kitchen; the remarkable doctor at the head of the institution.

Epic, enthralling, and meticulously crafted, Night Watch is a stunning chronicle of surviving war and its aftermath.

Author: Jayne Anne Phillips
Publisher: Knopf Publishing Group
Published: 09/19/2023
Pages: 304
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.25lbs
ISBN: 9780451493330


Review Citation(s):
Kirkus Reviews 07/01/2023
Publishers Weekly 07/10/2023
Booklist 07/01/2023 pg. 28

About the Author
JAYNE ANNE PHILLIPS is the author of Black Tickets, Machine Dreams, Shelter, MotherKind, Lark and Termite, and Quiet Dell. She is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Bunting Fellowship, and two National Endowment for the Arts Fellowships. Winner of an Arts and Letters Award and the Sue Kaufman Prize from the American Academy of Arts and Letters; she was inducted into the Academy in 2018. She has been a finalist for the National Book Award and twice a finalist for the National Book Critic's Circle Award. She lives in New York and Boston.