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Fiction, Modern & contemporary fiction (post c 1945), Science fiction, Fantasy
Winner of the BSFA Award 2002 and the Arthur C. Clarke Award 2003
"THE SEPARATION is filled with a sense of the precariousness of history; of small events and choices with extraordinary consequences" - David Langford
"Priest is masterful ... I'm rather flabbergasted" - Goodreads Reviewer
This is a not-so-straightforward story of twin brothers, rowers in the 1936 Olympics. One joins the RAF, and captains a Wellington; he is shot down after a bombing raid on Hamburg and becomes Churchill's aide-de-camp. His twin brother, a pacifist, works with the Red Cross, rescuing bombing victims in London. But the two brothers - both called J.L. Sawyer - live their lives in alternate versions of reality. In one, the Second World War ends as we imagine it did; in the other, thanks to efforts of an eminent team of negotiators headed by Hess (Hitler's deputy), the war ends in 1941.
THE SEPARATION is an account of how one perceives and shapes the past, and is an emotionally riveting story of how an average man can make a difference.
Praise for The Separation
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[A] subtle, unsettling alternative WWII history from British author Priest. 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'.
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An astonishing achievement, the sort of novel that in a saner alternate world might well be a candidate for mainstream awards and bestseller lists
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One cannot help but wonder how many discarded alternative personae litter the multiple paths of one's personal history, or histories, and this, for me, is the most disquieting legacy of this remarkable novel
Christopher Priest
Christopher Priest's novels have built him an inimitable dual reputation as a contemporary literary novelist and a leading figure in modern SF and fantasy. His novel THE PRESTIGE is unique in winning both a major literary prize (THE JAMES TAIT BLACK AWARD and a major genre prize THE WORLD FANTASY AWARD); THE SEPARATION won both the ARTHUR C. CLARKE and the BRITISH SCIENCE FICTION AWARDS. THE ISLANDERS won both the BSFA and John W. Campbell awards. He was selected for the original BEST OF YOUNG BRITISH NOVELISTS in 1983.
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