Know the Night Paperback by Maria Mutch

Product Details

• Publisher: Vintage Canada (2015-09-01)
• Language: English
• Paperback: 224 pages
• ISBN-13: 9780307363381
• Item Weight: 226.8 grams
• Dimensions: 7.99 x 5.21 x 0.64 cm

Finalist for the Governor General's Literary Award for Non-Fiction. An unforgettable, moving and beautifully written memoir on isolation, human connection and love, that will draw in readers of Annie Dillard and Joan Didion.

     For about two years, Maria Mutch's son Gabriel, who is severely autistic and has Down's syndrome, slept very little. In her incisive and poetic memoir, Maria shares the intensely personal challenges and revelations brought about by this period. As a baby, Gabriel's first words and affinity for sign language enthralled his adoring parents. When these words fell away, and his medical diagnoses multiplied, Maria committed herself entirely to Gabe's care. As his sleeping hours dwindled, care took place within an isolated, wakeful, often frightening world in which Maria's desire for connection and meaning expanded. She became fascinated with stories of Antarctic exploration, and found a companion in Admiral Richard Byrd, an explorer who lived by himself in the polar darkness for months in 1934 and later wrote about his struggle for survival in a book called Alone.
     Re-imagining Byrd's story and interweaving it with her own, Maria illuminates a search for love and understanding against the terrors of the unknown that will resonate with anyone who has lain awake in the dark, or longed to protect a loved one. Know the Night is a powerful journey into the mysteries of the night and the human mind, and a testament to the extraordinary bond between mother and child.

About the Author

MARIA MUTCH was born in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and has a Bachelor of Fine Arts from York University in Toronto. Her writing has appeared in Ocean State Review, Bayou Magazine, Literary Mama, The Malahat Review, Fiddlehead and Grain. Her short story "Hot Hot Day" received a finalist citation from the Canadian National Magazine Awards. Mutch lives in Rhode Island with her husband and two sons. Know the Night is her first book.