The Watch that Ends the Night

The Watch that Ends the Night: Voices from the Titanic

Allan Wolf

Like many people, there was a time in which I was fascinated by the Titanic. Between the movie, the books, and all of television documentaries, there was a lot to feed my obsession. I did eventually become over-saturated with Titanic facts and was ready to move on to other things. 2012, however, marks the one-hundredth anniversary of the sinking and I’m sure there will be a lot of books and new tv specials about it. The Watch that Ends the Night is the first book I’ve read about Titanic in a long time, and it was a treat.

Told in verse form, this book tells the story of the sinking from many different viewpoints, including a ship’s rat and the iceberg. I love the inevitability of the disaster as spoken by the iceberg (“I’ll have my heart. I have my part to play/The ice will have his pick of human hearts/as soon as fair Titanic plays her part.”). Each voice in the book is different and each adds richness to the total tale. Wolf’s research is evident throughout the story – I learned much from reading it. I highly recommend The Watch that Ends the Night.