A PULITZER PRIZE WINNER 2024 — Night Watch is a historical fiction novel that follows ConaLee, a young girl in post-Civil War West Virginia, as she and her mother, Eliza, struggle to survive in the immediate aftermath of the conflict. ConaLee struggles to raise her mother’s children, protect herself and her mother, and find her father in the decade after the Civil War.
A war veteran has forced himself into ConaLee’s and her mother’s world. The novel is split into parts that take place in 1864, 1874, and 1883, following Eliza and ConaLee’s life in the Appalachian Mountains and the Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum. They become swept up in the life of the facility — the man called the Night Watch; the orphan child, called Weed; the fearsome woman who runs the kitchen; the doctor who runs the facility. This explores themes of, trauma with its long term effects, the importance of family, and the impacts of war.
I enjoyed her writing and the entire story of ConaLee and her mother, Eliza. This is my first read by, Jayne Anne Phillips and look forward to reading more by her.
