The Night Watch

Title: The Night Watch
Author: Sarah Waters
Genre: Fiction
Pages: 446
Edition: Hardcover

This book hopped to the top of my TBR pile after it was nominated for the Britain's prestigious "Booker Prize for Fiction 2006". A beautifully poignant novel, Night Watch is set in 1940s London during the times of World War II. In this book, Waters weaves an intriguing plot involving five characters Kay, Helen, Julia, Viv and Duncan and so evocatively captures how their lives meet one another in most interesting ways. Written in a reverse chronological order, the book opens up unveiling her characters in 1947 post-war, then takes you back in time to those war-days in 1944 and 1941 to reveal how they got there. My favorite characters in the novel are Viv, a glamorous admin clerk madly in love with a war soldier and Kay, an ambulance driver who was betrayed by her lover. It was heartbreaking to read the trauma Viv had to go through when she aborted her child in the womb. My least favorite character was Julia, an ambitious crime writer living with Helen. Her character seemed very shallow and I could never get myself to like her. This book kept my interest all the way through, as Waters slowly unravaled her plots and once you get to the end of the book, you feel like you want to start over all again. A compelling read!!
My Rating: 4/5