Night Watch, by Jayne Anne Phillips
The 2024 winner of the Pulitzer Prize for fiction is a story of resilience and reinvention, set in a Civil War–era mental hospital. Born in 1861 (the same year of the confederacy’s secession), 12-year-old ConaLee has “not seen the War except in what it ruined.” Her father has been absent all her life. Her mother has gone mute in response to the relentless abuse of a violent veteran, who inserts himself in their lives before dumping them at a Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum. Within this West Virginian asylum, readers' assumptions about 19th-century mental healthcare are tested and secrets of ConaLee’s past are unveiled. Flashing between perspectives and timelines, Phillips traces the long tail of trauma through her characters’ lives and our nation’s history.
