Night Watch (Pulitzer Prize Winner)

by Jayne Anne Phillips

Book Overview

PULITZER PRIZE WINNER - LONGLISTED FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD IN FICTION - A NEW YORKER BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR - 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.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0451493338
• ISBN13: 9780451493330
• Release Date: September 2023
• Publisher: Knopf Publishing Group
• Length: 304 Pages
• Weight: 1.20 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.3" x 6.1" x 9.3"