Night Over Day Over Night (Paperback)

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Review
'Few contemporary storytellers have the ability to grab readers by the throat and not release them until the final page has been turned.' Sunday Telegraph

First-novelist Watkins re-creates a narrow slice of WW II in this conventional but painstakingly detailed story of a German boy who joins the S.S. in the final and increasingly desperate year of the Third Reich. His father having already died on the Russian front, Sebastian Westland is 17 (and caught up in a dalliance with a married woman of 32) when he leaves his school-friends and family and goes off for military training. Training school is rigorous, sometimes brutishly tyrannical - with an accidental death by machine gun, drunken trips into town on one-day leave, and an increasing sense of the certainty of death awaiting the recruits (one of whom, hysterically but logically declaring the war to be a lost cause, is badly beaten up by the others). After a home-leave, Sebastian and his fellow boy-soldiers are sent to the western front, where bit by bit they are immersed into the absoluteness of the horrors of the last-ditch war - in which orders have been given that the badly wounded be killed. As a small part of the Ardennes offensive, most of the young soldiers are indeed killed - in battle scenes that are astonishing for their feel of authenticity and flawless expertise of detail, and that rivet the reader to the page. Forced at one point lo shoot unarmed American prisoners in the field, and himself later wounded - although not gravely enough that he will be shot - Sebastian finds opportunity to murder his own S.S. training-commander (he uses a ceremonial dagger given only to members of the S.S.) but then, helpless in the maelstrom, returns to battle as his world seems to explode and crumble about him. Troubled now and then by fleeting anachronisms and flat notes ("I haven't been off with other girls, all right?" "I was pissed, off beyond words"), and susceptible occasionally to the artificiality of a hand-me-down lyricism, Watkins' effort remains on balance a gripping tour-de-force of battle fiction, however well-travelled the road it follows, providing an awesome glimpse of the self-destructive desperation of the end of the Reich. (Kirkus Reviews)

Product Description
This novel traces Sebastian Westland's transformation from an ordinary small-town adolescent into a crazed slaughtering machine, from his recruitment and training in Hitler's youth elite corps, on to a bloody battleground finale during the German's last gasp counter-offensive in the Ardennes.

1 Review 5 star:  (1) 4 star:    (0) 3 star:    (0) 2 star:    (0) 1 star:    (0)           Average Customer Review 5.0 out of 5 stars (1 customer review)		Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
Most Helpful Customer Reviews   11 of 12 people found the following review helpful: 5.0 out of 5 stars Watkins' superb debut., 11 May 2002 By A Customer This review is from: Night over Day over Night (Paperback) This is Paul Watkins' stunning debut novel. Written when he was little more than a teenager, this story about a young Nazi, could have been written by a brilliant author twice his age. It makes a mockery out of the usual angst-written, self-conscious claptrap written by young authors that usually graces the shelves of booksellers. Not only is the central character believible, sympathetic and decent in his own way, the context is as historically substantial as a Crane or Hemingway novel. It's not as pared-down as Watkins' later novels, you can see more of the iceberg than usual here, but that's okay: his writing is still beautiful, poetic and timeless. Small wonder this was a Booker shorlisted work. It was a sign of the great, great things to come... which have indeed materialised from the great Mr Watkins brain and pen. Every young author should have this thrust at them if they dare to think of making a quick buck - this is the standard they should dream of. Otherwise they should wear out some shoe leather first. Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this) Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review › See all customer reviews...		Ad feedback   Search Customer Reviews Only search this product's reviews

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