The Watch by Joydeep Roy-Bhattacharya

by:  Joydeep Roy-Bhattacharya
published by:  Hogarth
publish date:  June 5, 2012

Following a desperate night-long battle, a group of beleaguered soldiers in an isolated base in Kandahar are faced witha lone woman demanding the return of her brother’s body.

The Watch is based off the ancient Greek tale of Antigone.  Don't remember that one?  Don't feel bad.  Neither did I.  Basically Antigone's brother dies in battle outside the gates of the city.  Antigone wants to bring his body back inside the gates for a proper burial but he's branded a traitor and the punishment is that he has to rot out there.  The Watch is kinda flip flopped.  The sister is outside the gates of the base and the dead brother is inside, but she wants his body for a proper burial.

The Watch is told from various view points starting with the sister who may or may not be an unreliable narrator.  Then the rest of the story is told by various soldiers in the compound.  They're all trying to determine the intent of this woman.  Is her story really that simple?  Does she have more malicious intent?

I liked The Watch up until the end.  The entire book is told in a non-linear format and some parts are repeated from different viewpoints.  The end repeats a part in the beginning and I felt like it didn't match up.  It didn't work for me.  Up until that part, it was good and I enjoyed it.