The Watch That Ends the Night: Voices from the Titanic

Wolf (Zane's Trace) constructs a richly textured novel in verse that recreates the Titanic's ill-fated journey, predominantly through the voices of her passengers. The speakers include John Jacob Astor, ("the unsinkable%E2%80%9D) Margaret Brown, Captain E.J. Smith, and little-known individuals whose stories Wolf draws from research and archival materials. A Lebanese refugee, traveling alone with her brother, finds first love; a tailor, accompanied by his two sons, anguishes over his broken marriage; and a gambler cons his way through the first-class passengers' pocketbooks. A ship rat speaks, as does the iceberg itself%E2%80%94a choice that could have become esoteric ("I am the ice. I have no need of wings./ I only need the hearts Titanic brings%E2%80%9D)%E2%80%94but earns its place within a composite that includes colloquial speech, introspective interior monologues, and rhyming poetry. Throughout, sequences flash forward to an undertaker's handling of the bodies ("Bodies scattered for miles, in every direction./ Bodies as far as my indifferent eyes can see%E2%80%9D), assuring that the ending is never in question. But Wolf's carefully crafted characters evolve as the voyage slides to its icy conclusion; readers may be surprised by the potency of the final impact. Ages 14%E2%80%93up. (Oct.)