Night Over Day Over Night - by Paul Watkins (Paperback)

About the Book

A war novel of breathtaking power, this finalist for the Booker Prize presents "an astonishing triumph of the imagination" ("The New Yorker"). In the summer of 1944, fifteen-year-old Sebastian Westland joins the SS, knowing that he and his cohorts will probably be destroyed in the last stages of a war they neither welcome nor comprehend. At the Battle of the Bulge, this army of boys makes its last stand--and Sebastian is transfigured by his fear.

Book Synopsis

As Sebastian Westland journeys from childhood to the bloody proving ground of men, he loses everything by which he knows himself: his past, his innocence, finally his name. His struggle to survive a war he scarcely comprehends is rendered in the urgent, beautifully spare, memorable prose of a born storyteller.

Review Quotes

"Certain to bring [Watkins] comparisons not only with Stephen Crane, but with Hemingway and Remarque for its parallels with his clssic All Quiet on the Western Front . . .His virtuosic first novel won't be easily forgotten." --John Blades, The Chicago Tribune

"An amazing tour-de-force . . . a pwerful book by a yourng writer of impressive imagination and talent." --Robert Masello, Newsday

"This novel would be remarkable no matter who wrote it, but as the work of a twenty-three year old American, it is an amazement." --Lee-Anne Schreiber, National Public Radio

"Daring and remarkably assured . . . provocative." --Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times

About the Author

Paul Watkins is the author of six books, including Archangel and Calm at Sunset, Calm at Dawn, which won Britain's Encore Prize (both Picador). He now lives in Princeton, New Jersey, with his family.