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Night Waking
Historian Anna Bennett has a book to write. She also has an insomniac toddler, a precocious, death-obsessed seven-year-old, and a frequently-absent ecologist husband who has brought them all to Colsay, a desolate island in the Hebrides, so he can count the puffins. Ferociously sleep-deprived, torn between mothering and her desire for the pleasures of work and solitude, Anna becomes haunted by the discovery of a baby's skeleton in the garden of their house. Her narrative is punctuated by letters home, written 200 years before, by May, a young, middle-class midwife desperately trying to introduce modern medicine to the suspicious, insular islanders. The lives of these two characters intersect unexpectedly in this deeply moving but also at times blackly funny story about maternal ambivalence, the way we try to control children, and about women's vexed and passionate relationship with work. Moss's second novel displays an exciting expansion of her range - showing her to be both an excellent comic writer, and a novelist of great emotional depth.
378 pages, Paperback
First published February 1, 2011
87 people are currently reading
5381 people want to read
About the author
Sarah Moss
33 books1,880 followersSarah Moss is the award-winning author of six novels: Cold Earth, Night Waking, selected for the Fiction Uncovered Award in 2011, Bodies of Light, Signs for Lost Children and The Tidal Zone, all shortlisted for the prestigious Wellcome Prize, and her new book Ghost Wall, out in September 2018.
She has also written a memoir of her year living in Iceland, Names for the Sea, which was shortlisted for the RSL Ondaatje Prize in 2013.
Sarah Moss is Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Warwick in England.
She has also written a memoir of her year living in Iceland, Names for the Sea, which was shortlisted for the RSL Ondaatje Prize in 2013.
Sarah Moss is Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Warwick in England.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 344 reviews
October 12, 2016
4.5/5 stars.
This book was really really good! It gives you a unique insight into what it's like to be a mother, and while I've read several novels on family life and the stress that can come with it, I've never read anything like this.
"Night Waking" deals with Anna, her rather absent and non-understanding husband Giles as well as her two small children. They live quite isolated on a Scottish island for the holidays, and from the very first pages it is no secret that Anna finds the job of being a mother with a career overwhelming. The novel also comes with different extracts on the up-bringing of children which work really well with the story and give you an appropriate take on what it's like and what it has been like to raise children.
Earlier this year, I read "The Tidal Zone" as my first book by Sarah Moss and that was the book that got me interested in reading more from her. Having now finished a second novel, I can draw a parallel and say that Sarah Moss has a way of writing about ordinary things but with a fresh and hugely interesting take. The characters from "Night Waking" will stay with me for a long time to come, and that alone is enough to make it a great novel in my eyes.
This book was really really good! It gives you a unique insight into what it's like to be a mother, and while I've read several novels on family life and the stress that can come with it, I've never read anything like this.
"Night Waking" deals with Anna, her rather absent and non-understanding husband Giles as well as her two small children. They live quite isolated on a Scottish island for the holidays, and from the very first pages it is no secret that Anna finds the job of being a mother with a career overwhelming. The novel also comes with different extracts on the up-bringing of children which work really well with the story and give you an appropriate take on what it's like and what it has been like to raise children.
Earlier this year, I read "The Tidal Zone" as my first book by Sarah Moss and that was the book that got me interested in reading more from her. Having now finished a second novel, I can draw a parallel and say that Sarah Moss has a way of writing about ordinary things but with a fresh and hugely interesting take. The characters from "Night Waking" will stay with me for a long time to come, and that alone is enough to make it a great novel in my eyes.
July 8, 2022
This was my first of Moss’s books and I have always felt guilty that I didn’t appreciate it more. I found the voice more enjoyable this time, but was still frustrated by a couple of things. Dr Anna Bennet is a harried mum of two and an Oxford research fellow trying to finish her book (on Romantic visions of childhood versus the reality of residential institutions) while spending a summer with her family on the remote island of Colsay, which is similar to St. Kilda. Her husband, Giles Cassingham, inherited the island but is also there to monitor the puffin numbers and track the effects of climate change. Anna finds a baby’s skeleton in the garden while trying to plant some fruit trees. From now on, she’ll snatch every spare moment (and trace of Internet connection) away from her sons Raph and Moth – and the builders and the police – to write her book and research what might have happened on Colsay.
Each chapter opens with an epigraph from a classic work on childhood (e.g. by John Bowlby or Anna Freud). Anna also inserts excerpts from her manuscript in progress and fragments of texts she reads online. Adding to the epistolary setup is a series of letters dated 1878: May Moberley reports to her sister Allie and others on the conditions on Colsay, where she arrives to act as a nurse and address the island’s alarming infant mortality statistics. It took me the entire book to realize that Allie and May are the sisters from Moss’s 2014 novel Bodies of Light; I’m glad I didn’t remember, as there was a shock awaiting me.
According to Goodreads, I first read this over just four days in early 2012. (This was back in the days where I read only one book at a time, or at most two, one fiction and one nonfiction.) I remember feeling like I should have enjoyed its combination of topics – puffin fieldwork, a small island, historical research – much more, but I was irked by the constant intrusions of the precocious children. That is, of course, the point: they interrupt Anna’s life, sleep and research, and she longs for a ‘room of her own’ where she can be a person of intellect again instead of wiping bottoms and assembling sometimes disgusting meals. She loves her children, but hates the daily drudgery of motherhood. Thankfully, there’s hope at the end that she’ll get what she desires.
I had completely forgotten the subplot about the first family they rent out the new holiday cottage to: a hot mess of alcoholic mother, workaholic father, and university-age daughter with an eating disorder. Zoe’s interactions with the boys, and Anna’s role as makeshift counsellor to her, are sweet, but honestly? I would have cut this story line entirely. Really, I longed for the novella length and precision of a later work like Ghost Wall. Still, I was happy to reread this, with Anna’s wry wit a particular highlight, and to discover for the first time (silly me!) that thread of connection with Bodies of Light / Signs for Lost Children.
Originally published on my blog, Bookish Beck.
Each chapter opens with an epigraph from a classic work on childhood (e.g. by John Bowlby or Anna Freud). Anna also inserts excerpts from her manuscript in progress and fragments of texts she reads online. Adding to the epistolary setup is a series of letters dated 1878: May Moberley reports to her sister Allie and others on the conditions on Colsay, where she arrives to act as a nurse and address the island’s alarming infant mortality statistics. It took me the entire book to realize that Allie and May are the sisters from Moss’s 2014 novel Bodies of Light; I’m glad I didn’t remember, as there was a shock awaiting me.
According to Goodreads, I first read this over just four days in early 2012. (This was back in the days where I read only one book at a time, or at most two, one fiction and one nonfiction.) I remember feeling like I should have enjoyed its combination of topics – puffin fieldwork, a small island, historical research – much more, but I was irked by the constant intrusions of the precocious children. That is, of course, the point: they interrupt Anna’s life, sleep and research, and she longs for a ‘room of her own’ where she can be a person of intellect again instead of wiping bottoms and assembling sometimes disgusting meals. She loves her children, but hates the daily drudgery of motherhood. Thankfully, there’s hope at the end that she’ll get what she desires.
I had completely forgotten the subplot about the first family they rent out the new holiday cottage to: a hot mess of alcoholic mother, workaholic father, and university-age daughter with an eating disorder. Zoe’s interactions with the boys, and Anna’s role as makeshift counsellor to her, are sweet, but honestly? I would have cut this story line entirely. Really, I longed for the novella length and precision of a later work like Ghost Wall. Still, I was happy to reread this, with Anna’s wry wit a particular highlight, and to discover for the first time (silly me!) that thread of connection with Bodies of Light / Signs for Lost Children.
Originally published on my blog, Bookish Beck.
January 12, 2021
4.5, rounded up.
Book number 4 in my ongoing 'Moss-athon' of all of her books, and like all the previous ones, a 4.5 rating from me. - although it DID take me a rather unconscionably long time (10 days!) to read it; but that was rather the fault of family holiday guests, rather than any deficiencies in the book itself. The narrator here is delightful company, and this is the first of the Moss books I've read to contain a great deal of humour.
Although the resolution of the central 'mystery' (where did the baby's skeleton unearthed in the garden come from?) is not terribly surprising, the structure of the book IS: Moss alternates the main first person narrative with letters from some 130 years previous (NOT 200, as stated in the synopsis!), as well as entries from narrator Anna's book she is writing, and relevant quotes from various authorities on childrearing (primarily Anna Freud). It all makes for a stimulating and unusual read, and as this is the first in a loosely related trilogy, am looking forward to continuing with the next two volumes.
PS: I'm not the ONLY one who kept mistakenly thinking the title was Night WALKING - it's erroneously listed as such on Moss's Wiki page! :-O!
Book number 4 in my ongoing 'Moss-athon' of all of her books, and like all the previous ones, a 4.5 rating from me. - although it DID take me a rather unconscionably long time (10 days!) to read it; but that was rather the fault of family holiday guests, rather than any deficiencies in the book itself. The narrator here is delightful company, and this is the first of the Moss books I've read to contain a great deal of humour.
Although the resolution of the central 'mystery' (where did the baby's skeleton unearthed in the garden come from?) is not terribly surprising, the structure of the book IS: Moss alternates the main first person narrative with letters from some 130 years previous (NOT 200, as stated in the synopsis!), as well as entries from narrator Anna's book she is writing, and relevant quotes from various authorities on childrearing (primarily Anna Freud). It all makes for a stimulating and unusual read, and as this is the first in a loosely related trilogy, am looking forward to continuing with the next two volumes.
PS: I'm not the ONLY one who kept mistakenly thinking the title was Night WALKING - it's erroneously listed as such on Moss's Wiki page! :-O!
June 23, 2012
Set on a tiny Hebridean island, Night Waking is the story of Anna, academic and mother of two small children, who is working on a book about childhood in the eighteenth century while her own children are driving her to distraction and her aristocratic husband studies puffins, oblivious to the demands of domestic life. The already precarious balance of their lives is disturbed still further by the discovery of the bones of an infant buried in their garden.
Running parallel to the main narrative is a series of letters sent by a well-meaning midwife dispatched to the island in the nineteenth century whose attempts to redress the alarming level of infant mortality are met with outright hostility by the natives, some of whose descendants are Anna's nearest neighbours. It creates an ironic commentary on the present day and turns out to be the deus ex machina by which the plot is resolved.
This is a book about family life, about attitudes to children, about the burden of childcare and the sometimes devastating effects this can have upon a relationship, and Moss' portrait of the frustrations involved is often painfully familiar. In particular, she captures the toddler's disorientating commentary on everything, dizzily weaving fragments of well-known children's books into the narrative.
There is some excellent observational writing in this narrative but overall it's a rather bleak perspective on the contemporary family. Men are still useless at domesticity and women are obliged to nag them into grudging submission. I certainly wouldn't like to be stuck on an island with this family.
Running parallel to the main narrative is a series of letters sent by a well-meaning midwife dispatched to the island in the nineteenth century whose attempts to redress the alarming level of infant mortality are met with outright hostility by the natives, some of whose descendants are Anna's nearest neighbours. It creates an ironic commentary on the present day and turns out to be the deus ex machina by which the plot is resolved.
This is a book about family life, about attitudes to children, about the burden of childcare and the sometimes devastating effects this can have upon a relationship, and Moss' portrait of the frustrations involved is often painfully familiar. In particular, she captures the toddler's disorientating commentary on everything, dizzily weaving fragments of well-known children's books into the narrative.
There is some excellent observational writing in this narrative but overall it's a rather bleak perspective on the contemporary family. Men are still useless at domesticity and women are obliged to nag them into grudging submission. I certainly wouldn't like to be stuck on an island with this family.
March 3, 2017
This novel was interesting and well written. I identified with the protagonist regarding the non stop responsibilities of motherhood and earning a living. Too tired from lack of sleep to write more, but I would definitely read another book by this author.
Update:
What the heck is Anna, the protagonist, supposed to be writing about? I can't make heads or tails out of her writing excerpts.
She definitely needs some sleep.
I keep getting the impression that even though her toddler is excessively demanding, she gives in to him without thinking.
Anna is not a totally reliable narrator and she's not even completely likable, but I think the character this author created is unfortunately realistic. Some people embrace the challenges of parenthood and others (like me) need to constantly work on their aversion to not being able to do whatever they want, when they want - her husband Giles, is guilty of this as well. He is conveniently absorbed in his work, so he doesn't have to deal with his wife or kids, if he doesn't want to. Giles would argue that Anna takes the night wakings, etc upon herself, but it is clear that he values his job over hers. He can spend up to 12 hours a day watching the puffins, but she must do her writing in whatever spare moments she can find between childcare and household duties.
Even with the police investigation of an infant skeleton found in their backyard, I think this novel is more of a character study of the couple, their children and the local island people than a fast paced crime drama.
Update:
What the heck is Anna, the protagonist, supposed to be writing about? I can't make heads or tails out of her writing excerpts.
She definitely needs some sleep.
I keep getting the impression that even though her toddler is excessively demanding, she gives in to him without thinking.
Anna is not a totally reliable narrator and she's not even completely likable, but I think the character this author created is unfortunately realistic. Some people embrace the challenges of parenthood and others (like me) need to constantly work on their aversion to not being able to do whatever they want, when they want - her husband Giles, is guilty of this as well. He is conveniently absorbed in his work, so he doesn't have to deal with his wife or kids, if he doesn't want to. Giles would argue that Anna takes the night wakings, etc upon herself, but it is clear that he values his job over hers. He can spend up to 12 hours a day watching the puffins, but she must do her writing in whatever spare moments she can find between childcare and household duties.
Even with the police investigation of an infant skeleton found in their backyard, I think this novel is more of a character study of the couple, their children and the local island people than a fast paced crime drama.
February 8, 2023
I've not had my own children, but I've spent time with grandchildren and other families with small children. I've learned that having a coherent conversation, or a train of thought that actually reaches the caboose is much more challenging when little people are in the room, in your space, in your face. I've never read a book that captures that experience quite like this one; the overwhelming and relentless energy suck that parenting creates.
Our protagonist loves her children, but she misses the opportunity for quiet contemplation and the academic world she lived in before becoming a parent, where life is measured in thoughtful rumination or a friendly debate of big ideas rather than how many minutes of sleep she gets or what unanswerable questions she must answer or what that sticky residue is on her blouse.
"Moving to a global scale, what would I pawn for sleep? Would I, given the choice, have peace for Palestine or twelve hours in bed? Clean water for the children of Africa or a week off motherhood? The advent of carbon-neutral industrial processes or a month's unbroken nights? It's a good thing Satan doesn't come and chat to the mothers of sleepless toddlers in the middle of the night."
The cost of parenthood/motherhood can be steep, eating away at who you thought you were and what you wanted to be. It comes with trade-offs, to your own life and sometimes to a marriage. One learns to pick one's battles more carefully. One acquiesces in ways previously unheard of, making us hide all the books on parenting that appear to have no relevance to actual lived reality.
"Would I do it again, understanding as I do now and didn't then, that failure at motherhood is for life and beyond, that everything that happens to my children and my children's children is my fault? That my meanness and bad temper are going to trickle into the future like nuclear waste into the Irish sea? No. Not because I don't love my children--everyone loves their children, child abusers love their children--but because I don't like motherhood and you don't find that out until it's too late. Love is not enough, when it comes to children."
"I went back into the kitchen and sacrificed a private hoard of chocolate biscuits against the moment Moth, who had used most of his breakfast to paint the table, recognized that hill-walking in heavy rain is a violation of the toddler's charter."
All the angst is rendered in both eloquent and laugh-out-loud terms. I giggled with recognition and comradery. I admired the honesty.
We are immersed in Anna's world, juggling the needs of a toddler, an anxious seven-year old and a largely preoccupied and unhelpful husband as she discovers a buried baby skeleton in their yard, and takes on visitors in a refurbished rental unit nearby (a family bringing their own relational challenges to the mix). The story toggles between these characters and their "doings" and letters outlining historical events on the island, which adds to the mystery of the discovery. The reader is also treated to more academic sharing regarding child rearing and development practices, as Anna is researching and writing a paper on this topic for her work. The flow is a bit unusual but seems to work to expose and blend the nature of parenting, with all its uncertainties and pitfalls and winds together nicely by the end.
Years ago, I experienced a long car ride with a six year old grandson. By the third hour of relentless questions, I explained that my ears needed a nap for 15 minutes. After this book, my brain needs a nap, perhaps for far longer. But, the ride was worth it.
Our protagonist loves her children, but she misses the opportunity for quiet contemplation and the academic world she lived in before becoming a parent, where life is measured in thoughtful rumination or a friendly debate of big ideas rather than how many minutes of sleep she gets or what unanswerable questions she must answer or what that sticky residue is on her blouse.
"Moving to a global scale, what would I pawn for sleep? Would I, given the choice, have peace for Palestine or twelve hours in bed? Clean water for the children of Africa or a week off motherhood? The advent of carbon-neutral industrial processes or a month's unbroken nights? It's a good thing Satan doesn't come and chat to the mothers of sleepless toddlers in the middle of the night."
The cost of parenthood/motherhood can be steep, eating away at who you thought you were and what you wanted to be. It comes with trade-offs, to your own life and sometimes to a marriage. One learns to pick one's battles more carefully. One acquiesces in ways previously unheard of, making us hide all the books on parenting that appear to have no relevance to actual lived reality.
"Would I do it again, understanding as I do now and didn't then, that failure at motherhood is for life and beyond, that everything that happens to my children and my children's children is my fault? That my meanness and bad temper are going to trickle into the future like nuclear waste into the Irish sea? No. Not because I don't love my children--everyone loves their children, child abusers love their children--but because I don't like motherhood and you don't find that out until it's too late. Love is not enough, when it comes to children."
"I went back into the kitchen and sacrificed a private hoard of chocolate biscuits against the moment Moth, who had used most of his breakfast to paint the table, recognized that hill-walking in heavy rain is a violation of the toddler's charter."
All the angst is rendered in both eloquent and laugh-out-loud terms. I giggled with recognition and comradery. I admired the honesty.
We are immersed in Anna's world, juggling the needs of a toddler, an anxious seven-year old and a largely preoccupied and unhelpful husband as she discovers a buried baby skeleton in their yard, and takes on visitors in a refurbished rental unit nearby (a family bringing their own relational challenges to the mix). The story toggles between these characters and their "doings" and letters outlining historical events on the island, which adds to the mystery of the discovery. The reader is also treated to more academic sharing regarding child rearing and development practices, as Anna is researching and writing a paper on this topic for her work. The flow is a bit unusual but seems to work to expose and blend the nature of parenting, with all its uncertainties and pitfalls and winds together nicely by the end.
Years ago, I experienced a long car ride with a six year old grandson. By the third hour of relentless questions, I explained that my ears needed a nap for 15 minutes. After this book, my brain needs a nap, perhaps for far longer. But, the ride was worth it.
March 3, 2017
I wasn't sure that I was going to like this book after I read the first few chapters. Anna didn't seem like a very attractive character & the alternating chapters of late Victorian letters broke up the flow of the story. However, by the middle of the book I was drawn into life on the Hebridean island of Colsay (both past & present). By the end, the format of the book made sense and the Victorian letters, Anna's current life and her research into the death of a young girl during WW2 formed an intricately twined tripartite view of life of women & children over the years, highlighted by Anna's scholarly work on children and parenting that she is desperately trying to complete in her few snatched minutes of privacy.
did-not-finish
June 28, 2012Far, far, FAR too much about babies/children/motherhood from the word go. No thanks.
Read
June 15, 2017Widzicie, strasznie lubię książki o pisaniu. A Anna Bennet (pytanie, czy nazwisko nawiązuje do „Dumy i uprzedzenia” można postawić, czemu by nie) akurat pisze książkę – coś, co w Polsce byłoby zapewne książką habilitacyjną, a w rodzimym, brytyjskim systemie uniwersyteckim Anny ma pozwolić jej na przejście z pozycji doktora na stypendium z umową na czas określony do profesora na etacie. Tyle że książka Anny powstaje długo, bo bohaterka zajmuje się dwójką małych dzieci, jej mąż woli znikać na całe dnie wśród maskonurów, które bada – tak, też jest naukowcem – a w dodatku spędzają teraz czas na wyspie z dala od świata, ze słabym zasięgiem i mikrym dostępem do internetu. Trudno w takich warunkach stworzyć wiekopomne naukowe dzieło.
A cała recenzja tutaj: http://pierogipruskie.blogspot.com/20...
A cała recenzja tutaj: http://pierogipruskie.blogspot.com/20...
October 12, 2011
Anna is a mother on a remote island struggling to manage her marriage, workload and two young children when she discovers a baby’s skeleton in her garden. She proceeds to neglect all domestic duties in favour of investigating the child’s untimely demise. The narrative is bleak and repetitive, and the subplot of the island’s historically high infant mortality rate is mediocre. It could be said to effectively mirror the trials of daily life with children and an unsupportive husband. But whether anyone would want to experience that over 375 dreary pages, which culminate in an anticlimactic ending, is another matter.
Like my reviews? Go to http://booksbeccabuys.wordpress.com for more.
Like my reviews? Go to http://booksbeccabuys.wordpress.com for more.
February 22, 2021
Klimat, historia, wyspa, fale, fale, fale i jeszcze raz klimat. Dla mnie doskonała. Świetna kompozycyjnie, nie mogę się doczekać innych książek tej autorki.
Tymczasem zarwałam noc, piasek z wyspy chyba przesypuje mi się między oczami i dzisiaj nie napiszę już niczego mądrego.
PS wszystkich czepialskich (takich jak ja) uprzedzam, że strona redakcyjna kuleje, ale nie jest na tyle nieznośna, żeby tej historii nie docenić.
Tymczasem zarwałam noc, piasek z wyspy chyba przesypuje mi się między oczami i dzisiaj nie napiszę już niczego mądrego.
PS wszystkich czepialskich (takich jak ja) uprzedzam, że strona redakcyjna kuleje, ale nie jest na tyle nieznośna, żeby tej historii nie docenić.
April 3, 2020
With each reread I think I’ll find the husband’s uselessness and the two small children more and more infuriating, but I love how Moss uses the protagonist’s cynical point of view for comic effect: I laughed out loud many, many times. For someone like me who cares nothing about babies and domesticity in fiction, Anna’s voice is refreshing and oddly relatable.
May 31, 2022
Daję 4 ⭐️ zamiast 5, bo nie zaliczę tej książki do swoich naj, ale jaka to jest znakomita powieść! Prawie zero akcji, a totalnie mnie zahipnotyzowała.
Edit 31.05: A jednak im dłużej o niej myślę tym bardziej czuję, że ta książka zasługuje na lepszą ocenę. Zmieniam zatem na 5!
Edit 31.05: A jednak im dłużej o niej myślę tym bardziej czuję, że ta książka zasługuje na lepszą ocenę. Zmieniam zatem na 5!
June 20, 2016
It's hard to say quite how much I loved this book and although I can understand why some reviewers are less enthusiastic, for me it was just ideal! Initially it was because it brought back so many memories about sleep deprived nights but then because I began to care so much about all the characters and loved the way they developed. I really began to feel as though I was seeing through Anna's eyes and could almost see and feel the beauty, isolation and peace of life on Colsay, but understand the loneliness and frustration living in such a remote place.
I love the way Sarah Moss writes and felt as though she had been inside my head at some points in my life, putting into words thoughts and feelings that I have never properly been able to verbalise. I also really enjoyed the way the story ended, nicely resolved but still enough loose ends to keep you thinking and wondering for many days afterwards.
I will certainly be reading more by this author, probably very soon and would recommend reading her to all.
I love the way Sarah Moss writes and felt as though she had been inside my head at some points in my life, putting into words thoughts and feelings that I have never properly been able to verbalise. I also really enjoyed the way the story ended, nicely resolved but still enough loose ends to keep you thinking and wondering for many days afterwards.
I will certainly be reading more by this author, probably very soon and would recommend reading her to all.
October 26, 2017
I've struggled with how to rate this book. There are 5 star sections, and 2 star sections. I was compelled to read on while I had it in my hands, but reluctant to pick it back up once I had put it down.
The setting is an isolated island in the Hebrides. Anna Bennett, her two kids, and husband have moved here so that hubby can count the puffins. Anna, a historian, in unable to get any work done as she is sleep deprived, and has her hands full with motherly and wifely duties. One day while digging in the garden the bones of an infant are uncovered. Whose bones are these?
There are stories within stories within stories in this novel. It is very atmospheric, and I was delighted with the frank and honest way Anna's ambivalence at being a mother is described. It is not often we get such direct light shed on this holy of holies. Work family balance? No such thing here. I was intrigued by the history of childhood, and the paper that Anna works on is interspersed throughout the novel. It was interesting reading about Anna's inner life and her struggles. However, I could have cared less about the mystery at the core of this story, though it was interesting to learn more about the natives and their history. All these various plot lines get rather muddled in the final telling, at least for me. This is a quiet, character driven story, so if you're looking for a fast paced plot, skip this one.
The author is wonderfully skilled at crafting these worlds within worlds, and as I've already said, there are sections of breathtaking beauty. I am still hard pressed to give this a higher rating because of my ambivalence with it overall. That being said, I do plan to read her other books as there is real talent here, and this is one of her earlier ones.
The setting is an isolated island in the Hebrides. Anna Bennett, her two kids, and husband have moved here so that hubby can count the puffins. Anna, a historian, in unable to get any work done as she is sleep deprived, and has her hands full with motherly and wifely duties. One day while digging in the garden the bones of an infant are uncovered. Whose bones are these?
There are stories within stories within stories in this novel. It is very atmospheric, and I was delighted with the frank and honest way Anna's ambivalence at being a mother is described. It is not often we get such direct light shed on this holy of holies. Work family balance? No such thing here. I was intrigued by the history of childhood, and the paper that Anna works on is interspersed throughout the novel. It was interesting reading about Anna's inner life and her struggles. However, I could have cared less about the mystery at the core of this story, though it was interesting to learn more about the natives and their history. All these various plot lines get rather muddled in the final telling, at least for me. This is a quiet, character driven story, so if you're looking for a fast paced plot, skip this one.
The author is wonderfully skilled at crafting these worlds within worlds, and as I've already said, there are sections of breathtaking beauty. I am still hard pressed to give this a higher rating because of my ambivalence with it overall. That being said, I do plan to read her other books as there is real talent here, and this is one of her earlier ones.
July 10, 2011
I finished this book weeks ago, and I'm still thinking about it. The characters are believable (uncomfortably so if you're from a middle-class background, and see reflections in the anxieties over recycling and constant guilt over doing The Right Thing), and the setting is beautifully drawn. It's no surprise that Moss lectures in the use of place in story, because the isolated Scottish island is so vivid it acts as a character. I don't think I'd actually want to meet any of these characters, but I loved spending time with them in the novel.
December 18, 2019
This is the second Sarah Moss book that I’ve read this and given 5 stars to. She is quickly becoming my new (to me) favorite author and I can’t wait to read the rest of her books.
December 28, 2013
Imagine Peter May and Rachel Cusk wrote a book together, with a helping hand from Sarah Waters. Night Waking is that book. It's got baby skeletons dug up on Hebridean Islands; a two year old who refuses to sleep through the night; a half crazed mother wielding organic baby snacks while her husband counts puffins; and letters from a lonely 19th century nurse cut off from her family during a dark, cold winter. Which makes it hard to categorise: a motherhood thriller? More like a gender equality thriller.
Anna Bennet is at the tail end of an Oxford fellowship, trying and failing to finish a book on 18th century childhood while spending the summer on the Hebridean island of Colsay with her two young children. Her husband Giles Cassingham is an ornithologist - the aforementioned puffin counter - and is also the owner of the island, recently inherited from his father. Owned by the Cassinghams since the 1830s Colsay is now completed deserted except for Anna's family, and the guests at the black house Giles has had converted into a luxury holiday let complete with underfloor heating and mist shower. Anna's days are an endless round of baby wrangling - two year old Moth is not shy of a good tantrum - and assuaging her older son Raphael's consumerist guilt, brought on by over exposure to the Guardian newspaper. She hasn't slept a full night in two years, spending the small hours tending one child or the other, to the great danger of her sanity. Night Waking is primarily a book about squaring the circle of modern parenting, of motherhood and career, love and ambition. Anna is desperate to live beyond her children's needs, to develop her academic career, and is resentful of Giles' greater freedom; but at the same time is helplessly bound to Moth and Raph and unwilling to spend time away from them, certain she is the only one who can fulfil their needs.
Moss plays Anna's point of view for comic effect, and also for tragedy, but in both cases with great skill. She unpicks Anna's fragile mental state slowly, which has led to some accusations of tedium and glacial pacing in other reviews here, but I think the steadiness is justified in light of the clarity of character achieved. Occasionally the polemic of gender equality becomes heavy-handed info dump, but only because Anna herself is frustrated and passionate and refuses to be polite. Everything here is a function of the book's themes; it's a very careful sort of novel. The sort of novel that an academic would write, which is only fitting given that is what Moss is.
Woven through Anna's story is a counterpoint narrative in letters, written by May Moberley a nurse sent to Colsay by the Cassinghams in the 1880s to combat the almost 100% infant mortality. She finds a community completely alien to her experience,who neither speak her language or welcome her help. It is her presence in the book that lends it the eerie ness of the past. Early on in the book Anna unearths the skeleton of a newborn baby in the garden of their house, and the remains haunt the novel in more ways than one, prompting her to investigate the relationship between the Cunninghams and the islanders and to confront her own past. Anna's investigations eventually lead her back to May, and - because she is an academic after all - a post colonial reading of the island's history and her own fraught place in it. It is neat and tidy and thought provoking, and only looses a star because it wasn't also gut-wrenching. I'm definitely looking forward to reading more Sarah Moss, and especially the companion novel to this book (about the recipient of May's letters, her sister Althea) which comes out from Granta in March 2014.
Anna Bennet is at the tail end of an Oxford fellowship, trying and failing to finish a book on 18th century childhood while spending the summer on the Hebridean island of Colsay with her two young children. Her husband Giles Cassingham is an ornithologist - the aforementioned puffin counter - and is also the owner of the island, recently inherited from his father. Owned by the Cassinghams since the 1830s Colsay is now completed deserted except for Anna's family, and the guests at the black house Giles has had converted into a luxury holiday let complete with underfloor heating and mist shower. Anna's days are an endless round of baby wrangling - two year old Moth is not shy of a good tantrum - and assuaging her older son Raphael's consumerist guilt, brought on by over exposure to the Guardian newspaper. She hasn't slept a full night in two years, spending the small hours tending one child or the other, to the great danger of her sanity. Night Waking is primarily a book about squaring the circle of modern parenting, of motherhood and career, love and ambition. Anna is desperate to live beyond her children's needs, to develop her academic career, and is resentful of Giles' greater freedom; but at the same time is helplessly bound to Moth and Raph and unwilling to spend time away from them, certain she is the only one who can fulfil their needs.
Moss plays Anna's point of view for comic effect, and also for tragedy, but in both cases with great skill. She unpicks Anna's fragile mental state slowly, which has led to some accusations of tedium and glacial pacing in other reviews here, but I think the steadiness is justified in light of the clarity of character achieved. Occasionally the polemic of gender equality becomes heavy-handed info dump, but only because Anna herself is frustrated and passionate and refuses to be polite. Everything here is a function of the book's themes; it's a very careful sort of novel. The sort of novel that an academic would write, which is only fitting given that is what Moss is.
Woven through Anna's story is a counterpoint narrative in letters, written by May Moberley a nurse sent to Colsay by the Cassinghams in the 1880s to combat the almost 100% infant mortality. She finds a community completely alien to her experience,who neither speak her language or welcome her help. It is her presence in the book that lends it the eerie ness of the past. Early on in the book Anna unearths the skeleton of a newborn baby in the garden of their house, and the remains haunt the novel in more ways than one, prompting her to investigate the relationship between the Cunninghams and the islanders and to confront her own past. Anna's investigations eventually lead her back to May, and - because she is an academic after all - a post colonial reading of the island's history and her own fraught place in it. It is neat and tidy and thought provoking, and only looses a star because it wasn't also gut-wrenching. I'm definitely looking forward to reading more Sarah Moss, and especially the companion novel to this book (about the recipient of May's letters, her sister Althea) which comes out from Granta in March 2014.
March 11, 2021
This ended up being rather surprising. First, I really struggled to get going with this book. I wasn’t sure that I was going to enjoy it. It also took me a week to read, which for me is rather a long time given the size of the book. However I think that in the end, reading this book slowly is what made me enjoy it more. It let me think, it let me soak it all up.
This is the third book by Sarah Moss that I have read, and I have enjoyed them all. I’m lucky in that there is still quite a list of her books for me to dive into when the mood strikes. I think all of the books of her’s that I have read have been slow and gloomy. But that isn’t a bad thing, as it turns out I quite like gloomy books.
The writing was so honest and real. I felt Anna’s exhaustion and was desperate for her to have some peace and quiet. I listened to the audio book and the voice the narrator used for the children and their constant barrage of questions was brilliant. Young children can be impossible at the best of times, couple that with everything that Anna is also dealing with and it’s no surprise that she is at her wits end.
Honestly, if you are on the fence about having kids, this might well tip you over the edge of camp no kids.
In all fairness the book shows both the highs and lows of motherhood, and it is but one perspective.
I liked the honesty of the marriage that isn’t doing so great. It was nice to see a struggling marriage that still had hope. To often I read about struggling couples and how they just stop trying.
I found the mystery aspect to the book to be a little lacking but I don’t think that it was intended for that to be the main focus.
There are many facets to this book and I think I have probably overlooked several. But I think I will mull some parts of this over for a while. I’m glad I finally picked it up though. It’s been on my tbr for such a long time. I’m happy that it was worth the wait.
This is the third book by Sarah Moss that I have read, and I have enjoyed them all. I’m lucky in that there is still quite a list of her books for me to dive into when the mood strikes. I think all of the books of her’s that I have read have been slow and gloomy. But that isn’t a bad thing, as it turns out I quite like gloomy books.
The writing was so honest and real. I felt Anna’s exhaustion and was desperate for her to have some peace and quiet. I listened to the audio book and the voice the narrator used for the children and their constant barrage of questions was brilliant. Young children can be impossible at the best of times, couple that with everything that Anna is also dealing with and it’s no surprise that she is at her wits end.
Honestly, if you are on the fence about having kids, this might well tip you over the edge of camp no kids.
In all fairness the book shows both the highs and lows of motherhood, and it is but one perspective.
I liked the honesty of the marriage that isn’t doing so great. It was nice to see a struggling marriage that still had hope. To often I read about struggling couples and how they just stop trying.
I found the mystery aspect to the book to be a little lacking but I don’t think that it was intended for that to be the main focus.
There are many facets to this book and I think I have probably overlooked several. But I think I will mull some parts of this over for a while. I’m glad I finally picked it up though. It’s been on my tbr for such a long time. I’m happy that it was worth the wait.
July 14, 2019
This was a weird one for me. For about half the book I wanted to DNF it, and then it strangely sort of won me over? I don't really understand the hype with Night Waking though - maybe it's because I read The Tidal Zone first and felt it to be a superior work, or maybe I'm just missing some integral element that makes it great. But for the most part, I was just trying to concentrate on finishing this.
I found the multitude of themes running through Night Waking really interesting - motherhood, dysfunctional families, post-natal depression, the division of work and home - but I didn't really feel like Moss really ran with any one of these topics. There would be moments of brilliance dotted throughout, but then she wouldn't really take those strains of interest anywhere, and I just felt the story crumpling around me. I still don't really see the point of the story overall.
But I'd be lying if I didn't say Moss still kept me going. Even though her writing 'style' wasn't really anything that wowed me in this, her ability to evoke setting is incredible. Colsay came alive for me and strangely enough I yearned to go there, despite all the flaws and the isolation depicted by the narrator Anna. Also, the dynamics with characters that were introduced later in the story were really fascinating (if infuriating for me), and I feel like they were the saving grace for the story, at least in terms of keeping my interest.
Definitely a mixed bag, but it proved fantastic for a book club discussion, and I'd still probably check out Moss's latest work Ghost Wall - I'm not quite done with her yet.
I found the multitude of themes running through Night Waking really interesting - motherhood, dysfunctional families, post-natal depression, the division of work and home - but I didn't really feel like Moss really ran with any one of these topics. There would be moments of brilliance dotted throughout, but then she wouldn't really take those strains of interest anywhere, and I just felt the story crumpling around me. I still don't really see the point of the story overall.
But I'd be lying if I didn't say Moss still kept me going. Even though her writing 'style' wasn't really anything that wowed me in this, her ability to evoke setting is incredible. Colsay came alive for me and strangely enough I yearned to go there, despite all the flaws and the isolation depicted by the narrator Anna. Also, the dynamics with characters that were introduced later in the story were really fascinating (if infuriating for me), and I feel like they were the saving grace for the story, at least in terms of keeping my interest.
Definitely a mixed bag, but it proved fantastic for a book club discussion, and I'd still probably check out Moss's latest work Ghost Wall - I'm not quite done with her yet.
January 16, 2013
I was highly irritated by the toddler's nickname of "Moth", and vexed that it took the author until page 61 to inform me that it was short for Timothy. How did I not guess that? Pretentious.
A 7 year old reading engineering text books? Highly precocious and clearly heading for a nervous breakdown, as is his chronically sleep deprived mother. For a woman with a PhD, she's incredibly stupid, as is her equally academic but idiotic husband. A book that needed tighter editing and a reality check.
A 7 year old reading engineering text books? Highly precocious and clearly heading for a nervous breakdown, as is his chronically sleep deprived mother. For a woman with a PhD, she's incredibly stupid, as is her equally academic but idiotic husband. A book that needed tighter editing and a reality check.
April 23, 2020
Sarah Moss is one of my favourite writers. I have gradually collected all of her books except for her memoir and I’m so looking forward to the release of her new novel Summerwater. The reasons that I love her work are many and varied, but here are a few of them:
📚She seems to move effortlessly between time periods. Signs for Lost Children was set in the 1870’s, parts of Night Waking in modern Scotland and although Ghost Wall was set in contemporary Britain it may as well have been the Iron Age
📚She writes sparse dialogue that captures the emotional undercurrent of a conversation
📚She writes about the challenges faced by women. In Ghost Wall, Silvie has to hide her intelligence from her abusive father. Night Waking deals with a woman struggling to find herself in the midst of motherhood and a failing marriage. In Signs for Lost Children, Ally is trying to find her place as a female doctor in the late 19th century
📚The threads of her narratives are beautifully woven together whether they comprise the viewpoints of different characters or different historical periods
Night Waking is my most recent novel of hers. Anna and her husband Giles are living on his family’s uninhabited Scottish Island. Giles is an academic studying the migratory habits of puffins and Anna is trying to finish her book with their two young children in tow. Anna is sleep deprived, has had postnatal depression and feels like she is losing herself and her mind with the constant demands on her time and attention. Dilemmas of modern life and a historical mystery combine through the novel and Ally and May Moberley from Signs from Lost Children make another appearance in letters that punctuate the narrative. Although Night Waking sounds bleak, and it is in places, it is also grimly humorous and ultimately hopeful.
📚She seems to move effortlessly between time periods. Signs for Lost Children was set in the 1870’s, parts of Night Waking in modern Scotland and although Ghost Wall was set in contemporary Britain it may as well have been the Iron Age
📚She writes sparse dialogue that captures the emotional undercurrent of a conversation
📚She writes about the challenges faced by women. In Ghost Wall, Silvie has to hide her intelligence from her abusive father. Night Waking deals with a woman struggling to find herself in the midst of motherhood and a failing marriage. In Signs for Lost Children, Ally is trying to find her place as a female doctor in the late 19th century
📚The threads of her narratives are beautifully woven together whether they comprise the viewpoints of different characters or different historical periods
Night Waking is my most recent novel of hers. Anna and her husband Giles are living on his family’s uninhabited Scottish Island. Giles is an academic studying the migratory habits of puffins and Anna is trying to finish her book with their two young children in tow. Anna is sleep deprived, has had postnatal depression and feels like she is losing herself and her mind with the constant demands on her time and attention. Dilemmas of modern life and a historical mystery combine through the novel and Ally and May Moberley from Signs from Lost Children make another appearance in letters that punctuate the narrative. Although Night Waking sounds bleak, and it is in places, it is also grimly humorous and ultimately hopeful.
March 29, 2023
Lesen!!!
February 27, 2017
Night Waking is largely the tale of academic Anna, living with her husband Giles and two young children on an isolated island off Scotland. Her husband is studying the puffin population and Anna is supposed to be writing her book on the history of children raised in institutions and how this affects their development. However, she is constantly sidetracked from this work by the excessive demands of her two boys, Raph (Raphael) and Moth (Timothy) - Raph asks lots of questions and Moth simply has tantrums if he doesn't get his own way and refuses to sleep through the night, hence the 'night wakings' of the title, which invariably seem to fall to Anna. Anna is getting increasingly depressed and the discovery of the skeleton of a baby in their orchard only increases the burden. I didn't really like Anna that much - she constantly bemoans her position as virtually sole carer of the children yet does little about it (tell Giles to pull his weight, for God's sake) and she gives in too easily to the demands of the children (as a single parent for a time, I would not have tolerated much of the boys' behaviour); yet, when she does manage to engineer some time for her work, she doesn't work on her book but does something else instead! I think this book is largely aimed at a female readership so perhaps that is why I found it largely unsatisfying and was glad to finish it. Only 4/10 for me I'm afraid, but then I'm a man so what would I know!!
May 11, 2020
estem dość zdziwiona tak skrajnymi opiniami na temat tej książki. Sporo osób zarzuca jej, że jest przegadana, nudna i traktuje wyłącznie o frustracji młodej matki skierowanej ku dzieciom, mężowi i życiu. A! I przeczytałam też, że skutecznie zniechęca do macierzyństwa. Dla mnie (młodej matki) to fantastyczna książka. Bardzo feministyczna, bardzo inteligentna, bardzo sarkastyczna (oh jakie w niej piękne sarkazmy! jakie boskie satyry!), zabawna, ironiczna. Poznajemy Annę, młodą kobietę rozdartą pomiędzy opieką nad dziećmi a pracą naukową. Anna nie jest idealną matką, nie jest posiada cudownych mocy, cierpi na brak snu i dzień w dzień walczą w niej miłość i frustracja, oddanie i brak spełnienia, zmęczenie i ambicja. Sarah Moss pisze fantastycznie. Już dawno nie miałam ochoty tyle zaznaczać w książce. Być może bycie młodą mamą trochę mnie zbliżyło do Anny, choć odczucia zwiazane z macierzyństwem mamy bynajmniej niepodobne. Niemniej, wiele razy uśmiechnęłam się pod nosem lub zasygnalizowałam "o to to!". Wątek kryminalny w tej powieści to jedynie pretekst do rozważań głównej bohaterki. Zawiodą się zatem ci, którzy sięgną po książkę zachęceni blurbem o zacięciu kryminalnej zagadki. To książka, w której mimo że mało się dzieje to wciąga i fascynuje. Mądra, prawdziwa, niepodkoloryzowana, z dystansem. Bardzo polecam! Moss to świetna pisarka!
June 8, 2011
A marvellous, humorous portrait of what it's really like to be a working mum. I wanted to shout at Anna that she is a wonderful mum, loving her two boys and doing a much better job than she believes. Yes, it's a book about infant mortality on a remote Hebridean island, a book about the sins of the fathers, a book about feminism but most of all it's about the funny, difficult, sweet details of family life.
June 12, 2017
Not a proper review but I really liked that they were calling Timothy Moth. He never slept at night so I thought it was pretty clever.
Other than that, it was probably not a very wise choice to read a book about an exhausted woman while I've been very tired myself but it was a very good read. Flawed but it made me feel a lot and every time I was putting it down, it was because I had to, not wanted to.
Other than that, it was probably not a very wise choice to read a book about an exhausted woman while I've been very tired myself but it was a very good read. Flawed but it made me feel a lot and every time I was putting it down, it was because I had to, not wanted to.
October 4, 2020
En kvinnlig akademiker med ganska torr och mörk humor flyttar till en enslig ö i Yttre Hebriderna med sin familj. Mannen utför forskningsarbete om lunnefåglarna på ön, Anna ska egentligen skriva färdigt sin bok men hittar ingen tid och kraft till det vid sidan av ansvaret för barnen som faller på henne.
Jag gillar Anna, men den här boken var ett hästjobb att läsa. Jag läser ofta på engelska men kan inte minnas när jag senast läst en roman skriven på engelska i modern tid där språket känts så här svårt. De insprängda breven från en ung sjuksyster på ön i forna dagar gjorde inte läsningen lättare. Språket är förstås en del av karaktärsskildringen – det är rimligt att en akademiker uttrycker sig så här, men SOM jag önskade att boken funnits i svensk översättning när jag läste den.
Därmed är jag kluven till Night Waking. Å ena sidan innehåller den mycket intressant, bokens teman går in i varandra både snyggt och subtilt och det här är en typisk bok som skulle passa en bokcirkel. Å andra sidan: Att läsa den kändes verkligen som ett arbete.
Jag gillar Anna, men den här boken var ett hästjobb att läsa. Jag läser ofta på engelska men kan inte minnas när jag senast läst en roman skriven på engelska i modern tid där språket känts så här svårt. De insprängda breven från en ung sjuksyster på ön i forna dagar gjorde inte läsningen lättare. Språket är förstås en del av karaktärsskildringen – det är rimligt att en akademiker uttrycker sig så här, men SOM jag önskade att boken funnits i svensk översättning när jag läste den.
Därmed är jag kluven till Night Waking. Å ena sidan innehåller den mycket intressant, bokens teman går in i varandra både snyggt och subtilt och det här är en typisk bok som skulle passa en bokcirkel. Å andra sidan: Att läsa den kändes verkligen som ett arbete.
November 22, 2022
3.75
Una historia muy introspectiva en donde encontramos a una mujer que descubre que no le gusta ser madre cuando ya tiene dos hijos. Como ella misma nos dice, a veces, el amor no es suficiente. Es muy doloroso ver el nulo apoyo de su pareja y pensar en lo normalizado que está que la crianza recaiga en la madre aún cuando ambos trabajan. La historia está intercalada con las cartas de una mujer en los 1800s que llega a la isla en donde se desarrolla la novela para ayudar como partera. Ambas historias se intersectan por el hallazgo de un esqueleto en el jardín de la casa. La verdad sentí un poco sobrada esa parte histórica, pero disfruté de las tradiciones y supersticiones en torno al embarazo que se describen. Aunque al principio el estilo de Sarah Moss me costó, acabé disfrutando el libro y ahora voy a buscar más de ella.
Una historia muy introspectiva en donde encontramos a una mujer que descubre que no le gusta ser madre cuando ya tiene dos hijos. Como ella misma nos dice, a veces, el amor no es suficiente. Es muy doloroso ver el nulo apoyo de su pareja y pensar en lo normalizado que está que la crianza recaiga en la madre aún cuando ambos trabajan. La historia está intercalada con las cartas de una mujer en los 1800s que llega a la isla en donde se desarrolla la novela para ayudar como partera. Ambas historias se intersectan por el hallazgo de un esqueleto en el jardín de la casa. La verdad sentí un poco sobrada esa parte histórica, pero disfruté de las tradiciones y supersticiones en torno al embarazo que se describen. Aunque al principio el estilo de Sarah Moss me costó, acabé disfrutando el libro y ahora voy a buscar más de ella.
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