The Separation

Winner of the Arthur C. Clarke Award
BSFA Award for Best Novel of 2002

Chrisopher Priest's most recent novel, The Separation, is a re-examination of the early years of World War II through the story of two young men, identical twins, drawn into the conflict. Complex personal and moral issues separate them. Both men are destined to become victims of the war: one a pacifist, his brother a warrior. The reader is drawn steadily into the maze, betrayed both by history and memory.

"In this subtle, unsettling alternative WWII history from British author Priest (The Prestige), Jack Sawyer is an RAF bomber pilot who encourages his government to distrust the peace proposal offered by renegade Nazi Rudolph Hess. At the same time, perhaps, Jack's identical twin brother, Joe, is a pacifist Red Cross staffer aiding peace negotiations with a German delegation headed by Hess. Jack's actions help shape the events we remember; Joe's lead to a truce between Germany and Britain in 1941 that results in a disturbingly familiar postwar world. Convincingly detailed diaries, scraps of published texts, declassified transcripts and more baffle a historian who tries to reconcile different realities. The brothers themselves recognize the uncertainty of motives and actions; Joe in particular struggles to believe that he's making a better future even though he realizes how much it costs him personally. Many alternative history novels are bloodless extrapolations from mountains of data, but this one quietly builds characters you care about — then leaves their dilemmas unresolved as they try to believe that what they have done is 'right.'" Publishers Weekly (Starred Review) (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)

"By focusing on these two young men...and the complexities of their relationships, Priest offers a masterful look at how war affects individuals as well as an exploration of personal identity." Booklist (Starred Review)

"This is a sophisticated, thought-provoking novel that takes alternative history to a whole new level." Terry Windling, Year's Best Fantasy & Horror: Sixteenth Edition

"[M]asterfully conceived and written, thoughtful, audacious, a stab to the heart of historical appearances." Nick Gevers, Locus Magazine

"[T]he novel is almost pure joy....There are now four great novels of World War II in the literature of the fantastic...Swastika Night (1937) by Katharine Burdekin...Sarban's The Sound of his Horn (1952), Philip K. Dick's The Man in the High Castle (1962) and Christopher Priest's The Separation." John Clute, SF Weekly

"[T]he novel comes over as worthy — not unlike those brown-rice vegetarian meals where you're constantly aware of how much you're having to chew your food. Better than the McDonald's of the world — but maybe not as much fun." Philip Raines, Infinity Plus