Night watch

The stories in Night Watch, a new collection from Susan Zettell, delve deep into dark waters. Zettell looks unflinchingly at life's bountiful sorrows: the loss felt by abandoned children, the sudden intrusion of sickness or death, the fierce love suffered by the mother of a troubled child, the journey away from home and the shining, difficult path of return.

These are stories about rising to the surface, about bravely striking out and beginning again after loss. Zettell's handling of her characters makes us feel as if this is not fiction at all, but real life floating on the page. Her characters take us with them as they break through to light, and air, and sometimes laughter, finding their obstacles suddenly fluid as water, thin as a pane of glass, and changeable as a heart.