Night Watch

From one of our most accomplished novelists, a mesmerising story about a mother, a daughter and the chaotic aftermath of the Civil War. In 1874, in the wake of the war, trauma haunts civilians and veterans, renegades and wanderers, freedmen and runaways. Twelve-year-old ConaLee and her mother, Eliza, who hasn't spoken in more than a year, 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 lives.
There, far from family, a beloved neighbour, and their hidden mountain home, they try to reclaim their lives. The twin horrors of war and racism rise to the surface as we learn their history : 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 mystery behind the man they call the Night Watch ; the 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.