The Separation

The Separation tells the story of Jack and Joe Sawyer, twins who took two different paths in the Second World War.

Jack joined the RAF, while Joe joined the Red Cross. While they share the same reality, they also seem to exist in alternative, overlapping realities.

For instance, in Joe's dominant reality, the war ends in 1941 with a peace arrangement between the UK and Germany.

The story is told through many different sorts of fictional documents, which often tell contradictory stories about the lives of the two young men.

The story is a kind of puzzle, requiring the reader to be actively engaged in piecing information together from the many sources.

Many questions are never explicitly resolved, and I think the novel would require multiple readings to appreciate fully. I thought The Separation was intensely interesting, and I enjoyed continuing to think through the various unresolved questions long after I'd finished the novel. I look forward to reading more of Christopher Priest's work in the future!

Click Below for my Full Review!