Jayne Anne Phillips Night Watch-夜巡

本书背景设定在美国内战后的西弗吉尼亚州。故事讲述了12岁的ConaLee和她沉默一年多的母亲Eliza，他们前往Trans-Allegheny疯人院寻求庇护。小说通过他们的经历，探讨了战争、种族和家庭坚韧的主题。ConaLee在疯人院中假扮成她母亲的女仆，而Eliza则慢慢接受治疗。书中丰富的人物塑造和对战争遗留问题的深刻反思，使其成为一部受到广泛赞誉的文学作品。

书名：Night Watch《夜巡》

作者：Jayne Anne Phillips

简介：From one of our most accomplished novelists, a mesmerizing story about a mother and daughter seeking refuge in the chaotic aftermath of the Civil War

In 1874, in the wake of the War, erasure, trauma, and namelessness haunt civilians and veterans, renegades and wanderers, freedmen and runaways. Twelve-year-old ConaLee, the adult in her family for as long as she can remember, finds herself on a buckboard journey with her mother, Eliza, who hasn’t spoken in more than a year. They arrive at the Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum in West Virginia, delivered to the hospital’s entrance by a war veteran who has forced himself into their world. There, far from family, a beloved neighbor, and the mountain home they knew, they try to reclaim their lives.

The omnipresent vagaries of war and race rise to the surface as we learn their their flight to the highest mountain ridges of western Virginia; the disappearance of ConaLee’s father, who left for the War and never returned. Meanwhile, in the asylum, they begin to find a new path. ConaLee pretends to be her mother’s maid; Eliza responds slowly to treatment. They get swept up in the life of the facility—the mysterious man they call the Night Watch; the orphan child called Weed; the fearsome woman who runs the kitchen; the remarkable doctor at the head of the institution.

Epic, enthralling, and meticulously crafted, Night Watch is a brilliant portrait of family endurance against all odds, and a stunning chronicle of surviving war and its aftermath.