Night Watch

Summary

In the unsettled aftermath of the Civil War, a young girl and her traumatized mother seek refuge at the Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum in West Virginia, where their fates entwine with the institution's staff and inmates. Phillips writes in lyrical, time-slipping prose that moves between battlefield memory and the rituals of asylum life. The novel attends to the war's quieter casualties—women, children, and those whose minds the conflict broke.