The Separation is a 2002 novel by Christopher Priest

Christopher Priest (English novelist)

Christopher Priest is an English novelist and science fiction writer. His works include Fugue for a Darkening Island, Inverted World, The Affirmation, The Glamour, The Prestige and The Separation.Priest has been strongly influenced by the science fiction of H. G...

. It is an alternate history revolving around the experiences of identical twin brothers during the Second World War, during which one becomes a pilot for the RAF, and the other, a conscientious objector, becomes an ambulance driver for the Red Cross. 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

Winston Churchill

Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill, was a predominantly Conservative British politician and statesman known for his leadership of the United Kingdom during the Second World War. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest wartime leaders of the century and served as Prime Minister twice...

 (who used look-alike stand-ins) and, crucially, Rudolf Hess

Rudolf Hess

Rudolf Walter Richard Hess was a prominent Nazi politician who was Adolf Hitler's deputy in the Nazi Party during the 1930s and early 1940s...

, 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

Unreliable narrator

An unreliable narrator is a narrator, whether in literature, film, or theatre, whose credibility has been seriously compromised. The term was coined in 1961 by Wayne C. Booth in The Rhetoric of Fiction. This narrative mode is one that can be developed by an author for a number of reasons, usually...

.

Publication

The novel was first published in the United Kingdom

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 in 2002, in trade paperback by Scribners (ISBN 0-7432-2033-1), followed by a hardcover by Gollancz (ISBN 0-575-07002-1) 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

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...

 (ISBN 1-882968-33-6). The Separation was translated into French

French language

French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...

 by Michelle Charrier; it has also appeared in a Spanish

Spanish language

Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...

 translation.

Awards

The Separation won the 2002 BSFA Award

BSFA award

The BSFA Awards are literary awards presented annually since 1970 by the British Science Fiction Association to honor works in the genre of science fiction. Nominees and winners are chosen based on a vote of BSFA members...

 and the 2003 Arthur C. Clarke Award

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. The award was established with a grant from Arthur C. Clarke and the first prize was awarded in 1987...

. It was a finalist for the 2002 Sidewise Award

Sidewise Award for Alternate History

The Sidewise Awards for Alternate History were established in 1995 to recognize the best alternate history stories and novels of the year.The awards take their name from the 1934 short story "Sidewise in Time" by Murray Leinster, in which a strange storm causes portions of Earth to swap places with...

 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

Grand Prix de l'Imaginaire

Grand Prix de l'Imaginaire is a French award for speculative fiction. It originally had the word "science fiction" in the name, but this has since been dropped.-French novel:* 1974 : Michel Jeury, Le Temps incertain...

for best novel in translation.

External links

• Christopher Priest's Website
• Singling out the duplications in The Separation an essay by Paul Kincaid
• The scars of war: Christopher Priest looks behind the course of history for inspiration Guardian Unlimited
• Excess Candour: Trying to Find The Separation in This World a review by John Clute
• The Separation at Worlds Without End