Product Description

Moving back through the 1940s, through air raids, blacked out streets, illicit liaisons, sexual adventure, to end with its beginning in 1941, The Night Watch is the work of a truly brilliant and compelling storyteller. This is the story of four Londoners - three women and a young man with a past, drawn with absolute truth and intimacy. Kay, who drove an ambulance during the war and lived life at full throttle, now dresses in mannish clothes and wanders the streets with a restless hunger, searching ...Helen, clever, sweet, much-loved, harbours a painful secret ...Viv, glamour girl, is stubbornly, even foolishly loyal, to her soldier lover ...Duncan, an apparent innocent, has had his own demons to fight during the war. Their lives, and their secrets connect in sometimes startling ways. War leads to strange alliances ...Tender, tragic and beautifully poignant, set against the backdrop of feats of heroism both epic and ordinary, here is a novel of relationships that offers up subtle surprises and twists. The Night Watch is thrilling. A towering achievement.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3029 in Books
• Published on: 2006-02-01
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 506 pages

Review
'A stunning achievement' John Harding, Daily Mail'Brilliantly done ... the period detail never overwhelms the simple, passionate human story. It's a tour-de-force of hints, clues and dropped threads' Suzi Feay, Independent on Sunday 'A truthful, lovel

Suzi Feay, Independent on Sunday
'Brilliantly done... a tour-de-force of hints, clues and dropped threads'

Melanie McGrath, Evening Standard
'Sarah Waters's latest offering lingers on, long after the final page and its first, most fateful meeting'

Customer Reviews

Just superb
This is my first foray into Waters territory, and what a wonderful experience it was. At first I found the atmosphere a little gloomy and overcast, the characters rather macabre, but I was soon won over by the sheer brilliance of the writing. Waters ought to be used a paragon in all creative writing classes. The woman does not put a foot wrong. Her language, while never flamboyant, is so perfectly poised that reading her words is like watching a film, so exactly do they conjure up what she is describing.

The characters were so vivid, so unforgettable, so touchingly human, that I felt quite bereaved when I came to the end. But even more compelling was Water's evocation of wartime Britain, and London during the air raids. It was truly like being there yourself.

In short, quite, quite wonderful. Merits every superlative you can think of.

An involved historical drama with human interest
I loved this book. I should declare a fondness for involved historical dramas with human interest, so perhaps The Night Watch had a starting advantage.

The novel, set in 1940s London, followed various young people through the war and the immediate aftermath: Kay, Julia and Helen - three gay women; Reggie and Viv - a soldier and his mistress; and Duncan - Viv's mixed up brother. The characters are rich, and the secondary characters are no less vivid. The novel has space - six years, nearly five hundred pages, and a widely drawn cast which allows for a lot of plot development and intrigue.

The detailing is superb, with scenes described to perfection. This is never overbearing, but the beauty is in the clarity. And there is humanity and humour amongst it all. It is interesting to contrast the impact of the occasional terrorist incident today and the nightly bombing, killing and devastation that people endured only 60 years ago. And it was especially interesting to reflect on the helplessness that prisoners must have felt, unable to seek safety or shelter as bombs dropped around them.

Sarah Waters uses perfect judgement, too, in addressing homosexuality in 1940s Britain in such a subtle and caring way. She focuses on the people and the love, rather than the sex and the scandal. This is a rare feat that her male counterparts could learn from.

The novel is narrated in three chunks, in reverse chronological sequence. This gives it an odd feel, and I am sure we will all have preferences about which chunk we felt most engaged with and how we might have ordered it. Personally, I preferred the middle: the 1944 chunk. Its ending, as ambulancewoman Kay discovers the fate of her lover Helen, is my personal emotional crescendo. I found the 1941 section rather a let down coming straight afterwards. But we must judge the novel as it is ordered, for right or for wrong. And for me, it is an engaging, page turning epic that offers real insight into aspects of 1940s Britain that have been forgotten.

I'm off to read Sarah Waters other works now...

Enthralling
The Night Watch has been in my `to be read' pile for some time. I bought it as it was set during the Second World War, a dramatic and captivating period of time for me, but I was put off by the structure of the book. It starts in 1947 and ends in 1941. I didn't like the idea that I would know how the character's stories finished before I found out what had happened to them in the beginning.

However, I started it and forced myself through the first few pages. But once I'd got going the pace never faltered and I devoured the book hungrily.

The story circles around the lives of Kay, Vivien, Duncan and Helen with important periphery characters; Fraser, Julia and perhaps Mr. Mundy. We find out how each of their different lives is connected in some way.

Even though the book lacked the suspense of what happens in the end, we still want to read on to know more. How all the pieces fit together.
Waters' writing is truly evocative. I loved her vivid descriptions. The sights, the smells. The sheer terror of the Londoners. It was truly enthralling.