The Watch That Ends the Night: Voices from the Titanic

Description

Reviewed for Encyclopedia Titanica by Randy Bryan Bigham

A masterpiece. Wolf leaves no emotion unplumbed, no area of research uninvestigated, and his voices are so authentic they hurt. Everyone should read it. — Booklist

Wolf constructs a richly textured novel in verse that recreates the Titanic’s ill-fated journey, predominantly through the voices of her passengers… Wolf’s carefully crafted characters evolve as the voyage slides to its icy conclusion; readers may be surprised by the potency of the final impact. — Publishers Weekly

Twenty-four voices-of passengers, rats and even the iceberg-evoke the human tragedy of the ill-fated voyage. Wolf brings the history and, more importantly, the human scale of the event to life by giving voice to the players themselves . . . A lyrical, monumental work of fact and imagination that reads like an oral history revved up by the drama of the event. — Kirkus Reviews

Wolf’s novel in verse gives voice, through first-person accounts, to a cross-section of passengers and crew on the Titanic: how they boarded, why they’re there, and how they face the disaster. . . . The themes of natural disaster, technology, social class, survival, and death all play out here. — The Horn Book

Wolf allows readers to experience the tragedy from all decks. — Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books

This is a well-detailed and historically accurate portrayal of the events and brings the feelings and emotions of the characters alive. — Library Media Connection

Moving… From their embarkation on the “great floating city . . . with its cargo of human hearts,” the characters take turns relating their stories even as disaster engulfs them. — The Wall Street Journal

The resulting record of the brief voyage gives readers an emotional punch. The strength of the effect is astonishing given that the ship sank nearly one hundred years ago and has been the stuff of legend ever since… Very enthusiastically recommended. — Children’s Literature

Exhaustively researched, The Watch That Ends the Night vividly limns the naivete, the disbelief, and finally the hopelessness of the ship’s crew and passengers. — Poetry Foundation

About the Author

Allan Wolf, an expert poet and storyteller, is the author of the award-winning New Found Land: Lewis and Clark’s Voyage of Discovery and the YA novel Zane’s Trace. He lives in Asheville, North Carolina.