How long is it?
304 pages in the Knopf 2023 hardcover edition.
Fiction · Novel · Literary Fiction · Historical Fiction
Night Watch
Reading facts
✓ Checked- Reading effort
- 53 / 100Moderate
- Length
- 304 pagesKnopf · 2023
- Reading time
- 6 hat 50 pages an hour ·
- Pace
- Measured
- Emotional intensity
- 5 / 5
About 6 h · at 30 minutes a day, about 13 days
Estimated from the page count of this edition. Dense books can take longer than the estimate.
About the book
In West Virginia in 1874, twelve-year-old ConaLee arrives at the Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum with her mother, Eliza, who has not spoken for more than a year. The abusive veteran they call Papa leaves them there, and ConaLee poses as her mother's servant to keep them together. Her father never returned from the Civil War; inside the asylum, mother and daughter encounter care unlike anything they have known at home.
Reader notes
Lyrical and mournful, the historical novel pieces together the family's past through alternating timelines and viewpoints. Figurative language and dialogue without quotation marks require concentration, and scenes of war, rape and domestic abuse are harrowing.
How it reads
- Writing style
- Dense · Lyrical
- Tone
- Intimate · Melancholic · Unsettling
- Structure
- Dual timeline · Nonlinear
- Driven by
- Character · Relationships
- Point of view
- Mixed viewpoints
- Setting
- Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum · West Virginia
Reading complexity
- Writing
- 4 / 5
- Ideas
- 3 / 5
- Structure
- 4 / 5
- Background knowledge
- 1 / 5
About this profile
Collected’s assessment, not reader ratings. Complexity runs from 1 (least demanding) to 5 (most demanding).
- Writing
- How much attention the sentences and language require.
- Ideas
- How much interpretation or abstract reasoning the book asks of you.
- Structure
- How much you need to keep track of speakers, timelines and connections.
- Background knowledge
- Prior knowledge needed to follow the book, beyond what it explains.
- Emotional intensity
- Emotional pressure, from gentle (1) to intense (5). Separate from difficulty.
Themes
- Family
- Memory
- Mental health
- Trauma
- War
Content notes
- Violence
- Strong
- Sexual content
- Strong
- Swearing
- None
- Substance use
- None
- Abuse
- Strong
- Self-harm or suicide
- None
Questions readers ask
Which edition is shown here?
Knopf · 2023 · Hardcover. ISBN 9780451493330.
How long does it take to read Night Watch?
About 6 hours at 50 pages an hour, based on the 304-page Knopf edition. Dense books can take longer.
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Edition and details
- Publisher
- Knopf
- Publication year
- 2023
- Format
- Hardcover
- Pages
- 304
- ISBN
- 9780451493330
- Edition language
- English
- Original language
- English
- First published
- 2023
- Genres and form
- Fiction · Novel · Literary Fiction · Historical Fiction · Literary fiction
- Editions
- 1
- Languages
- 1 (English)
The catalog does not yet include a matching edition. Details may differ between editions.