Night Waking

  ‘'I'm a historian, remember? I'm the Rockind Fellow of St Mary Hall? If you wanted housework, you should have married one of those Clarissas your mother kept scattering at your feet?''
Sarah Moss takes us on a journey to witness the struggle of an academic to balance her career with the demands of being a mother and a wife. Within the isolated environment of a Hebridean island and under scrutiny from her husband, the locals and the police, Anna tries to find some bloody time to write and she really didn't need the bones of a baby unearthed in her garden...
Moss writes with humour - dry and acute- to communicate an almost unbearable situation but there are various eerie moments when you have the feeling that terrible twists and images are boiling underneath the chaos of family life. What should Anna do? Career, motherhood, housewife chores. This is her claustrophobic environment in the company of a good-for-nothing husband. What about her own mental health? Does anyone care about her? Should we give up our own wishes and ambitions when we become mothers? Is there nothing left of our own personality anymore? Should she accept men lecturing her on motherhood, wanting her to give up her job and research to become a fucking housewife, a mare giving birth by the dozens?
No!  Fuck you!
With every book I read lately, my teenage-old decision never to have children becomes stronger and stronger. My career is enough for me, thank you. And no, I don't need anyone's ‘'opinion'' to verify my decision. 
I liked Anna, she is a character I could connect with but I couldn't understand her docility. If I had a bunch of heathens breathing down my neck just because I happened to be an intellectually capable woman with a job (because in the eyes of the male characters of the novel ALL women are STUPID...), I would give them a piece of my mind. Police or no police...
Which is why I didn't like the book. The themes did not particularly appeal to me, the characters were indifferent, the repetitive motifs didn't really move the story forward, Raph's whining and Giles's bullshit drove me mad and what was that line about the Serbs as a slaughtering tribe? Give us a break! In the end, the story just wasn't enticing anymore and I skimmed through the final pages. May's letters that transport us to the 19th century gave a hint of Gaelic Folklore ( the selkies, the Grey People) but it was too little, too disjointed.
I loved Ghost Wall and Summerwater but Night Waking and The Fell disappointed me...