The Separation (Priest novel)
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''The Separation'' is a novel by British writer Christopher Priest, published in 2002. It is an alternate history revolving around the experiences of identical twin brothers during the
Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...
, during which one becomes a pilot for the
RAF The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and ...
, and the other, a conscientious objector, becomes an ambulance driver for the
Red Cross The International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement is a humanitarian movement with approximately 97 million volunteers, members and staff worldwide. It was founded to protect human life and health, to ensure respect for all human beings, and ...
. The author introduces a deliberate confusion by giving these brothers identical initials – J.L. Sawyer – one known as Jack (the pilot) and the other as Joe (the ambulance driver). Multiple histories – at least two, and on some readings many more – are presented, with different roles and fates for the various characters. The novel abounds with plays on the uncertainty of identity not just between the twin brothers, but also that of
Winston Churchill Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 187424 January 1965) was a British statesman, soldier, and writer who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom twice, from 1940 to 1945 during the Second World War, and again from ...
(who used look-alike stand-ins) and, crucially, Rudolf Hess, Hitler's deputy, who flew to Britain in 1941 claiming to have a peace offer from Hitler. The novel also utilises a favourite technique of Priest's, that of the
unreliable narrator An unreliable narrator is a narrator whose credibility is compromised. They can be found in fiction and film, and range from children to mature characters. The term was coined in 1961 by Wayne C. Booth in ''The Rhetoric of Fiction''. While unr ...
.


Publication

The novel was first published in the United Kingdom in 2002, in trade paperback by Scribners (), followed by a hardcover by Gollancz () in 2003. It was not published in the United States until 2005, when it was published in hardback by
Old Earth Books Old Earth Books is a specialty publisher which specializes in out-of-print and niche books, primarily in the science fiction genre. The name comes from the Cordwainer Smith ''Lords of the Instrumentality'' series. It is located in Baltimore, MD. I ...
(). ''The Separation'' was translated into French by Michelle Charrier; it has also appeared in a Spanish translation.


Re-Publication

British magazine ''
The Bookseller ''The Bookseller'' is a British magazine reporting news on the publishing industry. Philip Jones is editor-in-chief of the weekly print edition of the magazine and the website. The magazine is home to the ''Bookseller''/Diagram Prize for Oddest ...
'' reported in May 2003, that ''The Separation'' was "to be republished by Orion after the author bought back the rights from Simon & Schuster." The report said that Priest was unhappy with the publicity and marketing support, and quoted Priest as saying, "A lot of staff I had been working with had left. The new editor was clearly not in sympathy with the book, and there was no apparent inhouse support for it." The article added that, in November 2002, Orion's managing director,
Malcolm Edwards Malcolm John Edwards (born 3 December 1949) is a British editor and critic in the science fiction field. An alumnus of The Haberdashers' Aske's Boys' School, he received his degree from the University of Cambridge. He was Deputy CEO at the Orio ...
approached Priest and proposed that Gollancz republish the title in hardback. "Gollancz has always felt like a natural home to me, so I can't say how pleased I am to finally have made it after all these years," Priest said.


Critical reception

In an article for ''
New Scientist ''New Scientist'' is a magazine covering all aspects of science and technology. Based in London, it publishes weekly English-language editions in the United Kingdom, the United States and Australia. An editorially separate organisation publish ...
'' about the contestants for the 2003
Arthur C. Clarke Award The Arthur C. Clarke Award is a British award given for the best science fiction novel first published in the United Kingdom during the previous year. It is named after British author Arthur C. Clarke, who gave a grant to establish the award i ...
, Maggie McDonald praised the novel as "strong competition... The twins—RAF pilot and conscientious objector—reach cusps of change, war triumphs, peace fails or vice versa. Priest's writing is gripping, and it's one of those rare books that reveal what writing is: manner and matter twinned and entwined." Elizabeth Hand described the book as "exquisite ... an exceptionally frightening novel whose nightmare power derives from its chilling, almost clinical evocation of an historical reality with which we are all familiar, the London Blitz... a cliffhanger narrative of dual identities, betrayals, and shifting realities, as two versions of the twins' histories—and England's, and the world's—are woven together, like strands of DNA, to form a terrifying narrative. Priest has used doubles before to great effect, in his award-winning novel ''The Prestige''; but ''The Separation'' trumps even that tale. Its chapters linger in the mind like scenes from a Hitchcock film, impossible to shake off; like Hitchcock's work, ''The Separation'' begs for repeated readings to appreciate the cold brilliance and execution of its intricate plot fully. A masterly novel that deserves to become a classic." ''
Publishers Weekly ''Publishers Weekly'' (''PW'') is an American weekly trade news magazine targeted at publishers, librarians, booksellers, and literary agents. Published continuously since 1872, it has carried the tagline, "The International News Magazine of ...
'' called it a "subtle, unsettling alternative WWII history": "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'." Pauline Morgan, reviewing the novel for SF Crowsnest.com, said, "This is a glorious book to read—not for nothing was Christopher Priest included in the line-up of Britain's best young novelists some years ago. ''The Separation'' does what so few books do these days, whatever genre they are written in; it encourages the reader to think."


Awards

''The Separation'' won the 2002
BSFA Award The BSFA Awards are literary awards presented annually since 1970 by the British Science Fiction Association (BSFA) to honour works in the genre of science fiction. Nominees and winners are chosen based on a vote of BSFA members. More recently, m ...
and the 2003
Arthur C. Clarke Award The Arthur C. Clarke Award is a British award given for the best science fiction novel first published in the United Kingdom during the previous year. It is named after British author Arthur C. Clarke, who gave a grant to establish the award i ...
. It was a finalist for the 2002
Sidewise Award The Sidewise Awards for Alternate History were established in 1995 to recognize the best alternate history stories and novels of the year. Overview The awards take their name from the 1934 short story " Sidewise in Time" by Murray Leinster, in ...
for best long-form alternate history, and the 2003 John W. Campbell Memorial Award. The French translation won the 2006 Grand Prix de l'Imaginaire for best novel in translation.


References


External links


Christopher Priest's Website


an essay by Paul Kincaid

''Guardian Unlimited'' * ttps://web.archive.org/web/20080108115507/http://www.scifi.com/sfw/issue285/excess.html Excess Candour: Trying to Find ''The Separation'' in This Worlda review by John Clute
The Separation
at Worlds Without End {{DEFAULTSORT:Separation, The 2002 British novels Novels by Christopher Priest British alternative history novels Alternate Nazi Germany novels 2002 science fiction novels Fiction with unreliable narrators Charles Scribner's Sons books