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Night watch

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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 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 brilliant portrait of family endurance against all odds, and a stunning chronicle of surviving war and its aftermath.

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Availability

Detail Information

Series Title

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Call Number

813 PHI n

Publisher

New York : Vintage Books., 2023

Collation

304 p. ; ill. ; 20 cm

Language

English

ISBN/ISSN

9781101972793

Classification

800

Content Type

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Media Type

-

Carrier Type

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Edition

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Subject(s)

Mental Health
HISTORICAL FICTION
WAR
Literary Fiction
Civil war

Specific Detail Info

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Statement of Responsibility

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Other Information

Level

High School

Book Segment

Select -- Reading for pleasure -- Program Reference

Reading Level

Independent

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