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The Night Watch cover art

The Night Watch

By: Sarah Waters
Narrated by: Juanita McMahon
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Publisher's Summary

Shortlisted for the British Book Awards, Book of the Year, 2007.
Shortlisted for Audible's Listen of the Year, 2006.
Shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize, 2006.
Shortlisted for the Orange Prize for Fiction, 2006.

Moving back through the 1940s, through air raids, blacked out streets, illicit liaisons, sexual adventure, to end with its beginning in 1941, The Night Watch is the work of a truly brilliant and compelling storyteller. This is the story of four Londoners, three women and a young man with a past, drawn with absolute truth and intimacy.

Kay, who drove an ambulance during the war and lived life at full throttle, now dresses in mannish clothes and wanders the streets with a restless hunger, searching; Helen, clever, sweet, much-loved, harbours a painful secret; Viv, glamour girl, is stubbornly, even foolishly loyal, to her soldier lover; Duncan, an apparent innocent, has had his own demons to fight during the war. Their lives, and their secrets connect in sometimes startling ways. War leads to strange alliances.

Tender, tragic, and beautifully poignant, set against the backdrop of feats of heroism both epic and ordinary, here is a novel of relationships that offers up subtle surprises and twists. The Night Watch is thrilling. A towering achievement.

©2006 Sarah Waters (P)2006 Time Warner AudioBooks

Critic Reviews

"A truthful, lovely book that needs no conjuring tricks to make you want to read it again." ( Observer)
"Brilliantly done....A tour-de-force of hints, clues, and dropped threads." ( Independent on Sunday)

What listeners say about The Night Watch

Average Customer Ratings
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Ripper of a story

Great story, great characters. Poignant, funny with underlying angst bubbling up nicely. Narrator is fantastic

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3 people found this helpful

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A slow burner...

Loved the story, the narrator and the characters. The Blitz descriptions were amazing - I really felt I learnt a lot. It might seem a little slow to start but I don't know where the hours went while I was listening. Will be downloading some more Sarah Waters asap.

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2 people found this helpful

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Wonderful

Loved this story and the narration was just fantastic, with the many characters brought to life by Juanita McMahon.

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2 people found this helpful

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    4 out of 5 stars
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Lots of plots converging in wartime drama

A very dramatic read, which is a little slow to get into, simply for the fact it takes a while to figure out how all the characters that are rapidly introduced are connected to each other. The author jumps back and forth in time to give context and depth to the story and paints such a vivid picture of London in the war. Great book.

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1 person found this helpful

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Beautifully written

If I was going to compare this book to anything it would be the Robert Aldrich film "The Killing of Sister George": a slow descent into despair but so enjoyable on the way.

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Loved it but needed more because I loved it.

I loved the setting, the characters , the description of wartime London. Maybe the author wanted you to construct your own ongoing story for each character but I was frustrated by the ending. At least one sequel novel would be really appreciated. The narrator did a fantastic job.

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  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
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Waiting, waiting, waiting.....

I’m a fan of TTV, so I thought I would also enjoy this one, but I always felt myself waiting for something riveting to happen and it just never really happened for me. A tad disappointing to be honest. The narrator was very good though.

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Excellent

As usual Sarah Waters delivers well rounded, interesting characters in a believable setting. Enjoyed it all.

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A fascinating story

Juan McMahon is a brilliant narrator, whose voicing of the different characters is amazing.

The story is excellent and very engaging. The diversity of rich and well rounded characters in wartime London, and the fact that the story starts at the end and then returns to an earlier period, make it very interesting.

Sarah Waters has obviously researched her subject thoroughly, and writes extremely well.

I highly recommend this novel and think it would appeal more to female readers interested in this period of history.

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