Three poetic novellas centred around the author's background of
growing up as the child of a veterinarian.
Full of humour and compassion, Night Watch collects three
novellas that explore the lives of rural veterinarians. Wigmore's vets
struggle to stay awake during unending calving seasons, reaching for
moments of stillness and grace between phone calls and farm calls;
they
balance their own family's births and deaths with shepherding animals
through caesareans and euthanasia, covering miles of road in their
vast
jurisdictions during harsh winters and muddy, ruthless springs.
Travelling from small towns in northern BC to the south of France and
Fiji, sometimes in the span of a night and sometimes over a lifetime,
the men and women in Night Watch work with their hands, keep
their hearts in check, and strain to define themselves against the
backdrop of an unforgiving job that puts them at the mercy of the
elements--and each other.
"One might assume the graphic viscera of farm medicine wouldn't lend
itself to beautiful writing, but one would be wrong--Wigmore's lilting
writing is as soothing as a lullaby."--Chatelaine
"Wigmore's prose brings to mind Alice Munro's ability to capture the
complex emotions that simmer underneath quiet, quotidian
moments."--Vancouver Sun
