The Separation

by Christopher Priest

Christopher Priest excels at rethinking SF themes, lifting them above genre expectations into his own tricky, chilling, metaphysically dangerous territory. The Separation suggests an alternate history lying along a road not taken in World War II. But there are complications.

In 1999, history author Stuart Gratton is intrigued by a minor mystery of the European war which ended on 10 May 1941. The British-German armistice signed that month has had far-reaching consequences, including a resettlement of European Jews in Madagascar.

In 1936, the identical twin brothers Joe and Jack Sawyer win a rowing medal for Britain in the Berlin Olympics: it's presented to them by Rudolf Hess. The brothers are separated not only by a twin's fierce need "to be treated as a separate human being", but by sexual rivalry and even ideology. When war breaks out Jack becomes a gung-ho bomber pilot, Joe a conscientious objector. Still they're inescapably linked, and sometimes confused. Both suffer injuries and hauntingly similar ambulance journeys. Churchill writes a puzzled memo (later unearthed by Gratton) about the anomaly of a registered-pacifist Red Cross worker flying planes for Bomber Command. Hess has significant, eventually incompatible meetings with both men. Contradictions are everywhere.

As in his magical 1995 novel The Prestige Priest is fruitfully fascinated by the legerdemain of twins, doubles, impostors, symmetrical roles. Churchill's double briefly appears. So does the famous conspiracy theory that the Hess who flew to Britain with his quixotic peace deal wasn't the real Hess ring true? Clearly The Separation was impressively, extensively researched. Its evocations of bombing raids--from either side of the bomb sites--are memorable.

The unfolding story strands become increasingly disorienting and hallucinatory; the easy escape route of dismissing one strand as delusion is itself subtly undermined. The Separation is filled with a sense of the precariousness of history; of small events and choices with extraordinary consequences. --David Langford

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction, Alternate History, Historical Fiction, Fantasy, War, World War II

338 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2002

About the author

Christopher Priest was born in Cheshire, England. He began writing soon after leaving school and has been a full-time freelance writer since 1968.

He has published eleven novels, four short story collections and a number of other books, including critical works, biographies, novelizations and children’s non-fiction.

He has written drama for radio (BBC Radio 4) and television (Thames TV and HTV). In 2006, The Prestige was made into a major production by Newmarket Films. Directed by Christopher Nolan, The Prestige went straight to No.1 US box office. It received two Academy Award nominations. Other novels, including Fugue For a Darkening Island and The Glamour, are currently in preparation for filming.

He is Vice-President of the H. G. Wells Society. In 2007, an exhibition of installation art based on his novel The Affirmation was mounted in London.

As a journalist he has written features and reviews for The Times, the Guardian, the Independent, the New Statesman, the Scotsman, and many different magazines.

Reviews

[Bradley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Classic Christopher Priest.

With one caveat: Don't start here if you're new to him!

His Prestige is a great novel on its own, but that popular novel doesn't come all that near to the wide-wide ranging preoccupation with the Other place described in most of his other novels. And to be sure, there's a common theme in this one with those others.

Never-ending war. Lies and propaganda. Twins. Faulty memory. Strange, unexplainable events. Airplanes.

And above all, HISTORY. We *might* be spending some time in that other place. That alternate reality so hauntingly like our own. But in this past around WWII, all the names and people are pretty much the same... however... I think this is where the real separation happens between our history and the Other happens. I'm guessing because Priest never puts us in the shoes of people who ever really KNOW anything. They're just living their lives and surviving as they can. But for us, the Readers, we're locked in a hellishly fascinating struggle with separating OUR history with what THEIR history is doing.

Priest is kinda masterful here. He knows and has researched an AMAZING amount to give us this. But nothing is very obvious. Except for when it is, of course. :) All this is fantastic icing on the cake. At the core of it, we have our estranged twin brothers who devote themselves to living very different lives. One is a pro-war Bomber for England and the other is a Conscientious Objector working for the Red Cross. Their own separation and the similar wounds and circumstances they find themselves in at various points seem custom-made to paste them back together no matter how much they strive to separate themselves.

Their story is rather awesome all by itself, but it only gets better when we tick off all the fantastic mirroring techniques going on across all History, alternate dimensions, and the author's own predilections. :) As with all those other books I mentioned. :) They shine like signposts to us in this novel, giving us all the hints we need...

As long as we don't START here. :)

I'm rather flabbergasted. :) It's always a treat. :) A very, VERY smart treat. :)

[Fiona · Rating 4 out of 5]

It is one of my greatest sadnesses, as of about two hours ago when I finished this book, that I am not as good as Christopher Priest. For he is bloody good and an absolute madman.

Twenty pages into this book, he rewrote the Second World War. Then he rewrote it again, I forget how many times but it was lots. I got to the first twist and immediately couldn't put the book down for nearly six hours. I think I must have read about two thirds of it in one day. He writes very well, and the plot and the writing are both very easy to get caught up in. My kind of story.

[Merl Fluin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Alternate history isn't really my bag, especially not alternate histories of WW2. But this swept me along thanks to its brilliant pacing, its perfectly unfolded reveals, and the sheer bloody elegance of its storytelling. If you'll pardon the cliché: I absolutely couldn't put it down.

[Olethros · Rating 3 out of 5]

-De las diferencias y lo que provocan, figurativamente hablando (y al pie de la letra, también).-

Género. Ciencia-Ficción (en realidad no lo es, estrictamente hablando, pero la clasifico así por el bien del orden de distribución de libros en el blog. Cuento con su comprensión).

Lo que nos cuenta. En 1999, Stuart Gratton es un escritor especializado en la Segunda Guerra Mundial que acude a un evento de firma de ejemplares de sus obras cuando una mujer le entrega un manuscrito de su padre fallecido, el Sr. Sawyer, sobre sus experiencias durante el conflicto, un tema particularmente interesante ya que Gratton ha encontrado datos sobre un tal Sawyer que tuvo mucho que ver en el desenlace de la Segunda Guerra Mundial para Inglaterra, que firmó un armisticio con Alemania en 1941. En 1936 los gemelos Joe y Jack Sawyer van a Alemania a competir en los Juegos Olímpicos en la categoría de remo por parejas sin timonel, donde conocerán algo más del régimen tiránico, a alguno de sus líderes y a alguna de sus víctimas.

¿Quiere saber más de este libro, sin spoilers? Visite:

http://librosdeolethros.blogspot.com/...

[Darren Goossens · Rating 4 out of 5]

From http://darrengoossens.wordpress.com/2...

My wife’s review of this book is: “Engaging but unsatisfying. Not so good for people without a good knowledge of history.” I am rarely so pithy, direct, clear, definite or unequivocal, so shall proceed to spin out my review over hundreds of words. I may even reach a different conclusion.

Christopher Priest the author came to prominence through the British science fiction (SF) magazines, New Worlds and the like. Perhaps it’s because the British writers inherit the tradition of Wells, who predates ghettoised genre SF, that the UK writers see SF as a mode rather than a market. These authors and others write books which happen to be categorised in a particular way, but are not written to the category, so to speak. Priest has made a career of that, beginning relatively close to the (UK version of) the heart of genre SF, especially with his early classic, Inverted World, and then manifesting his preoccupations with what is real and what is not and whether we can tell the difference in more and more subtle and ambiguous ways, using fewer and fewer genre tropes, to the benefit of his work, which at its best (The Prestige, perhaps, The Affirmation, perhaps, The Islanders, probably) pays no heed to where the bookseller will shelve it, and whether it is slipstream (is that just the genre of things that don’t easily fit in any other genre? Who has worked out the Venn diagram for this?), SF or literary fiction or magic realism or anything else. Labels are not relevant. The author tackles something worth tackling, and the book takes the shape it needs to. This is admirable.

My big problem with this novel is that I am not sure what it is tackling, though that may well be my own lack of perceptiveness.

There are a few classes of alternate history stories, generally considered to date back to Murray Leinster‘s ‘Sidewise in Time’ of 1934, such that an award dedicated to the idea is called the Sidewise. Some explore an alternative history as if it were the only one, just an only one different to our only one. Stories like SS-GB or A Transatlantic Tunnel, Hurrah! fall into this category; there is a single event that turned out differently, and the ramifications are explored. Some use the multiple parallel universes as the main plot device, an infinity of parallel worlds exfoliating from every possible outcome of every (suitable) event, often invoking the ‘many worlds’ interpretation of quantum mechanics and some more pseudo-science to allow travel between the parallel worlds. A lovely, forgotten example of this is Ring Around the Sun by Simak, but other examples that come to mind include The Timeliner Trilogy (Richard C. Meredith) and Paratime by H. Beam Piper. A third category is something of an amalgam of the two — it explores the very point at which two (or possibly more) possible worlds diverged, with events often hinging on the most minor of causes. The archetype here is (I am tempted to say ‘of course’) ‘A Sound of Thunder’ by Ray Bradbury, though many of us will be more familiar with the Simpson’s Treehouse of Horror version, where Homer and his toaster create various universes.

The Separation falls into the last category. It explores the lives of twin brothers, J. L. (Joe) Sawyer, conscientious objector in World War Two, and J. L. (Jack) Sawyer, RAF Wellington bomber pilot. The historical turning point is the success (or as in our world, lack of success) of Deputy Führer Rudolf Hess’s attempt to broker peace with Britain in 1941, prior to the German invasion of Russia.

The structure of the book is somewhat obfuscated. The framing story uses an author of popular histories, clearly an inhabitant of the universe where Hess’s efforts succeeded, who wants to trace the story of J. L. Sawyer; he does not know if Sawyer is two people. Since the story includes doubles for some other key characters, this question of identity is a recurring one. The first Sawyer memoir we read appears to be our own world, from the point of view of Jack, who had met Hess at the Munich Olympics before WWII and got involved in the events around the peace mission. In the second half we get patchwork account of the lives of the two Sawyers in the alternate reality, with Joe as the focus. Joe survives the Blitz but suffers injuries. He may or may not take part in a conference that brokers peace in May 1941.

(I am going into the plot in more detail than I usually would because to some extent this review is me working out what the hell went on in the book. I won’t go on.)

The book has the strengths I have come to expect from its author. Priest has the bestselling author’s ability to make you turn the page, yet a dislike for the easy answer. From his early work he has shown the ability to describe the impossible in calm, reasonable tones that ground the story, even something as horrible as ‘The Head and the Hand’. His characters are not cyphers — this is an important strength in an alternative history novel, where the characters can be little more than bland cogs in the grinding gears of the universe (or at least in the logic chopping in the story).

But I’m not sure what the book is trying to do. Is it a fictionalised essay on a possible world? Is it an illustration of how history can turn on the smallest, most unpredictable of events? These are neither deep nor terribly subtle points. It is definitely a successful rendering of the lives of a pair of young men that got caught up in the war, and of how their different personalities lead them in different directions, so in that sense it works well as a literary novel of character. Like most of Priest’s major works, it is often unclear what is actually known, which is one of the points of it, I suppose. At times Churchill refers to a pacifist RAF bomber pilot, clearly conflating the two Sawyers. But they really are two people — they rowed the coxwainless pairs in Munich…

I think the book can be read as the story of parallel versions of two lives, and how the two worlds came to be. Then, at some point the story, or the bit of it included in the book, ends.

Perhaps it is unfair of me to ask what the book is about. If it had aimed lower — to simply tell an adventure story set in the parallel universe — I would not be asking this question. Because the book looks so closely at the men at the centre of the separation of the two worlds, it seems to be working to say something about the fragility of history, and how it is built on incomplete knowledge and misunderstandings and personalities as much as forces of history, and how easily our world could be different. Yet surely this is obvious. Or do most people wander along assuming that the world is how it must be, rather than how it happens to be?

The book is gripping. It kept me up late reading. It plays with time within the timelines, and ‘memories’ seem to go forwards as well as backwards. The prose is precise, and at times precisely misleading, the characters believable, the background almost too solid (‘gee, his research was thorough’ is not what the author wants going through your mind as you read, I suspect). It’s a good book, a fine book, and a lovely example of how Priest inhabits his own space, one he has created for himself, in the literary landscape. He is a major author of speculative fiction, science fiction, fiction that explores our fraught relationship with the ‘real’ world, whatever you want to call it (how about ‘fiction’?). Not recommended if you insist on endings that tie it all up with one stunning revelation. Otherwise, highly recommended.

[Simon · Rating 4 out of 5]

An alternative history story with a difference, one that focuses on the time of divergence (and the lead up to it) more than the after effects. Most alternative histories posit a critical decision in the past that if made differently would have caused a very different subsequent chain of events. Here the author explores what might have happened (and what might have made it happen) if Churchill had accepted Rudolph Hess's plan for peace in 1941.

The story focuses on two identical twins that become estranged and go on to live quite different lives into the second world war, one becoming a RAF bomber pilot, the other a conscientious objector working for the red cross. But they seem to become separated not only in space but in time-lines as well.

The author brings many of his trademark themes and ideas to this book; the question of identity and the unreliability of memory. He handles these with his usual restraint and subtlety, paying huge attention to detail in what seems to me a well researched book.

As with all alternative history stories, it helps if you have at least a general knowledge and interest in the time in question and this is definitely the case here with large parts of the narrative focusing on day to day life in WWII.

It seems to me that Priest was making the case that Britain should have made peace with Germany after the fall of France and that it was only Churchill's warmongering ways that prevented it. I'm not so sure but he does make quite a good case for it. Would Germany really have liberated Western Europe in exchange for peace with Britain?

But all in all, another very good read from one of my favourite authors who never fails to impress.

[Ziggy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Quel roman WTF !!! J'ai a-do-ré ! Si c'est de la séparation de mes lobes du cerveau que l'auteur évoque en titre, sachez qu'il a totalement réussi sa mission ! J'ai adoré me faire bousculer par ce roman entre uchronie et faits réels, entre Histoire et histoires et la technique narrative utilisée pour nous mettre dans l'état de pensée d'un des personnages est juste géniale. Une pépite !

[Phil · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant. This is exactly what is wanted and expected from a Christopher Priest novel: crises of identity, the unreliability of memory, imposters, delusions, a critique of the construction of history - both public and private - and a compelling narrative that keeps the reader on his or her toes right to the end and then beyond.

It's his best novel since "The Affirmation", and possibly therefore his best, full stop.

Without giving anything away, then, a pair of identical twins take very different paths in life, which involve them in two very different versions of history. Their experiences sometimes overlap, sometimes flatly contradict each other. They are embroiled, almost accidentally, with world-changing events and people, who themselves may not be what they seem. Both their lives and deaths are multifaceted, in incident and significance. Both are attested to by witnesses of diametrically different happenings and outcomes. They may even be the same person, experiencing contrary and parallel existences, or hallucinations.

As always, Priest's prose is surefooted, colourful, and casually allusive. The narrative strands are laid out like a hall of mirrors, becoming ever more fragmentary and difficult to follow in any kind of unified way, while continuing to command attention and stimulate the desire to make clear sense. It implicates the reader in its own logic, and keeps raising questions which may never be answered.

[Wastrel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Of the three Priest novels I've read, this is definitely the least powerful, least shocking, least mind-bending, and most certainly the least neat and tidy, relying less on a beautifully elegant twist that ties a neat bow on everything and more on a meditative exploration of paths not taken that is always in motion but that never really goes anywhere.

It is also, however, magnetic in its storytelling despite its arguable lack of story, convincingly solid and engrossing in its historical specificity, and a magisterial display of the author's uncanny command of voice and character.

It may not have shaken me to my core, or lead to any profound epiphanies, but it was thoroughly enjoyable to read and strengthens my conviction that Priest is one of the most talented writers I've encountered, despite his lack of ostentation.

This is also probably, despite its somewhat frustrating ending, a novel with a broader appeal than the more mind-bending and obscure The Affirmation and The Prestige, thanks to its apparent straightforwardness (sort of!) and well-researched placement in a 'popular' historical era (WWII).

For my full review, you can look over on my blog

[Guy Salvidge · Rating 5 out of 5]

This might be Priest's best novel, an alternate-WWII story featuring twin brothers, a Bronze medal at the Berlin Olympics, a 1941 armistice between Britain and Germany, and a whole lot of phastamagoric shenanigans. Oh, and Rudolph Hess is a fairly major character in it. The book is convoluted, labyrinthine, and fascinating. I'm sure it would reward careful re-reading. Priest isn't and has never been much of a stylist, but no matter - this is highly accomplished and highly creative work.

[Matthew Fitzgerald · Rating 2 out of 5]

Perhaps there was all sorts of meaning behind the duality of the various characters – the brothers Sawyer, discovering doppelgangers of Churchill and Hess, etc – but I put down this book pretty disappointed. Priest constructs a somewhat bland frame story for this novel, and then uses all manner of historical documents to flesh it out: journals (funny how all the characters write so well and descriptively in their journals, almost like … a novel), telegraphs, excerpts from newspapers and speeches, letters, military transcripts … a lot of it done to set up some kind of internal consistency, a historicity of this world where WW2 ended differently. I followed the book through several turns, keeping the storylines of the two JD Sawyers distinct in my head, even though the author was intentionally muddying the waters. Some effort was put into characterizing Hess as a powerful, menacing villain, but for all we hear of it, it’s all talk, with little more a few strong-armed conversations. Also some care was taken to flesh out an alternate history for the war. There even seems to be two competing narratives at one point, one that lives in this alternate timeline and another that lives in "our" timeline. Again, the lines are deliberately blurred, but it doesn't matter, because in the end he does nothing with them.

At least the twin brothers were characterized strongly, if not particularly well done. JD felt like the lead in a Heinlein novel about the RAF, while Joe was a morose man who seems full of courage and moral vigor at his conscientious objector hearing, but he’s slowly gnawed by doubt into a rather pathetic character. Birdgit is as flat and one dimensional a female character I have seen. There was never anything there for me to care about, for JD to long for or for Joe to love. But Priest does do a good job of conveying the daily terror, scarcity, fatigue, and difficulties of wartime. Especially seeing London after a night of bomb, from both JD’s perspective and Joe’s, was captivating. Here a strong and accurate sense of geography and history help pain the picture, and it's vivid and often the best parts of the novel.

I didn’t come away from the book with any clear idea of what was the “true” narrative. Did both men die in their respective methods of wartime service, and they’re both getting one of those “how life might’ve been” moments before death, a la Jacob’s Ladder? Is the incongruity of the stories a comment on the chaos of war? If Joe never really did help Britain achieve a separate peace, then what future was the frame story set in, where the US is some hyper-isolationist police state? And if Joe’s waking dreams are ultimately false, then why are there so many red herrings that pointlessly try to legitimize it all as a real part of this alternate history? The inability of Priest to not only wrap up the novel with a compelling ending, but to also fail to offer any kind of edification as to what really happened (in a book with no great meditations on the human condition, with little more going for it than the thrust of the story), it all just made me feel like I had wasted my time.

[Eleanor · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great many years ago, I read a book of essays called “If it had Happened Otherwise”, which took various historical events and then examined what the outcomes might have been if a key factor had changed. I have loved this sort of writing ever since. Christopher Priest takes as his historical event the flight of Rudolf Hess to Scotland to try to bring about a peace treaty between Germany and Great Britain.

His way into this is through the lives of identical twins Jack and Joe Sawyer. But this is not a straightforward different history - there are many versions of the lives of these two young men. We are in the realm of quantum mechanics and parallel universes.

The book is brilliant, intriguing and utterly absorbing. I loved it. One of the best books of the year for me.

[Sara G · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book about differing timelines and a potential alternate history WWII seemed interesting, but ended up being boring and incomprehensible to me. It's won a lot of awards, but just a quick glance at Goodreads reviews shows that people's opinions are pretty polarized. Obviously the author did his research about the historical aspects, but the way he used twins and hallucinations to characterize events and possible permutations of them just became too hard to follow.

[Brian Koser · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wut

[Jenny Sparrow · Rating 3 out of 5]

Третья книга Приста в моем зачете.

Главные герои: близнецы, которые делят не только внешность, но и инициалы. В юности они участвуют в Олипийских играх в нацистском Берлине в 1936 году, но после этого их пути расходятся. Один становится летчиком Королевской авиации, а другой - пацифистом и женится на немке. А потом начинается Вторая мировая..

Стиль Приста чувствуется: снова здесь повествование, которое ведется от лица разных героев, снова несколько временных пластов сменяют друг друга, снова дневники и письма, снова иллюзии, сны, галлюцинации, близнецы, проблема идентификации.. Только на этот раз еще альтернативная история и Вторая мировая война. Что могло бы быть, если бы в мае 41 года был подписан тот сепаратный мирный договор между Британией и Германией, который пытался заключить заместитель фюрера Рудольф Хесс, прилетевший для этого в Шотландию?

Причем с точки зрения повествования он как раз был подписан, и привел к тому, что Британия вышла из войны в 1941 году, и это до неузнаваемости изменило мир. В самом начале (в наше время) мы как бы вскользь узнаем, что США давно в глубоком экономическом и политическом кризисе, что у них с Европой очень натянутые отношения и тому подобные вещи. Это сразу интригует и побуждает читать дальше, чтобы узнать, в чем же соль.

Только вот чем дальше, тем лично мне читать становилось все утомительнее, потому что Прист дает очень мало ответов, лишь только с каждой главой закручивает и закручивает спираль времени, сюжета, событий. Накладывет одно на другое, и читатель уже сам, как один из главных героев, перестает понимать, то ли это явь, то ли сон.. Я и сейчас не все кусочки паззла сложила, не со всеми вещами разобралась. Но в целом я поняла, что личности братьев-героев и их судьбы (один военный летчик, другой - пацифист и сотрудник Красного креста) и являются выражением двух временных реальностей. Мира, где война не закончилась в 1941 году и продолжилась по тому сценарию, какой знаком нам; и мира, где в мае 1941 года был подписан мирный договор, что изменило всю Европу до неузнаваемости..

В общем, оценка довольно скромная, потому что временами хотелось бросить и после прочтения осталось много вопросов. Но с другой стороны книга заставляет мозг поработать, возвращает к себе мыслями и после прочтения, в ней очень интересная манера изложения и интересная альтернативная история. Но не Престиж, от которого я в свое время была в восторге.

[Nicky · Rating 1 out of 5]

I gave this a good long chance, but around a hundred pages in I was still completely underwhelmed. I've heard good things about Christopher Priest, so maybe this just isn't the right book for me. On the other hand, maybe he just isn't the right writer for me.

I skimmed a bunch of other reviews, and then the end of the book, and just -- really, it doesn't sound like it does anything particularly interesting. Alternate histories can be fascinating, but it doesn't sound like Christopher Priest ever commits to one idea and runs with it. The cop-out end with the implication that it was all or mostly a hallucination just, ugh.

[Terry Pearce · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is exactly what I've come to expect from Christopher Priest. Engaging, thoughtful, slightly mind-bending takes on reality with good writing and character behind the conceit. Worthwhile.

[Rachel (Kalanadi)]

DNF'd at 34%. Just really not for me and I was bored, with no sense of where the story was headed.

[Eleanor]

As in the only other book I’ve read by him, The Prestige, Priest is fascinated here by twins and doubling, shadow selves, and the road not taken. Set on the eve of, and during, WWII, with a ’90s-set frame story to which we annoyingly never return, The Separation is about twins, Jacob and Joseph Sawyer (both of whose initials are J.L., which causes other characters, and indeed the government, to confuse the two). Competing in the 1936 Berlin Olympics as a cox-less rowing pair, they see Hitler, Hess, and the trappings of Nazism. Jack, with frustrating naivete, is basically unaffected by the visit, but Joe understands that their hosts—and particularly the daughter, Birgit—are in trouble as German Jews, and arranges for Birgit to be smuggled out to England in the van that carries their rowing shells and equipment. From their different responses to Berlin, a more profound separation follows: Joe marries Birgit and becomes a conscientious objector driving ambulances for the Red Cross, while Jack becomes a fighter pilot. The novel starts off slow and very normal-historical. But soon, cracks start to show. Jack witnesses a German plane shot down by other Germans. Moments later, he sees the same thing happen again, but differently. Jack’s plane crashes and he survives along with the navigator, but then we hear from the navigator, who says Jack died. Joe is killed during the Blitz and Jack lives decades without him, but then Joe re-narrates the episode, in which he’s missing for a few days but eventually located, meeting Jack several times afterwards.

Joe experiences what he calls “lucid imaginings”: long intervals during which the circumstances of his life change minutely. He is aware that contact with his twin seems to spark these visions, but what are they? Quantum realities? Hallucinations brought on by fatigue and injury? Doublings and the truth of history are crucial sub-plots: Churchill and Rudolph Hess both appear to have body doubles (Churchill’s does his bomb-site morale tours for him; Hess’s seems to be the one who goes through Nuremberg and imprisonment after the war, so where has the actual Hess gone?) In one of these realities, Joe is deeply involved with the conception and delivery of a peace treaty in 1941, while the USA, Soviets, and Japan never enter the fighting. In the other—the frame story’s, so presumably our reality—the war proceeded as we know it and didn’t end until 1945. There is so much thematically going on in this novel, but regarding pace and writing I had doubts. The writing isn’t bad so much as dull: neither Joe nor Jack are engaging narrators, and while their factual approach may have been designed to make them more reliable in a reader’s mind, it makes the prose unexciting on the sentence level. Pacing is oddly slow, too; this isn’t a timey-wimey statecraft thriller, although it could have been and sometimes looks like it should be, but nor is it a deep, character-driven dive into the emotional fracture occasioned by war. Nothing is ever explained for the reader—not the nature of Joe’s “lucid dreams”, not the specifics of each altered reality—and you don’t have to explain as a writer, but then it would be nice to get more aesthetic pleasure from the prose. It’s brilliant as a thought exercise, but a slightly frustrating experience as a novel.

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

This time-slip, alternate-world, twin-dynamic novel from Priest is an excellent work, full of satisfyingly unexplained detail which makes for an engaging, intriguing read. On a personal level, however. the downside is that I have little interest in World War II, so some of the historical information, the detail around planes and weaponry, and the political machinations were a struggle for me to become involved in. For this reason, it drops a star, but mileage for others will vary. Ultimately, it's a brilliantly realised slipstream novel which I generally enjoyed spending time with.

[Peter Bradley · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Separation by Christopher Priest


I had been meaning to read Christopher Priest’s “The Inverted World” (published in 1974) for four decades. I don’t know why I kept putting it off, but I finally read it in 2023. The story has one of the best opening line in science fiction – “I HAD REACHED the age of six hundred and fifty miles” – which just hooks the reader into finding out how this can be possible.

The setting of “The Inverted World” is the real attraction. Priest describes a city slowly winching its way through Europe. For some unexplained reason, the world has become topologically distorted. The world behind the city falls off as time slows down – people can spend months behind the city, but when they return only a day has passed. On the other hand, time speeds up ahead of the city – pioneers who go ahead for a day return to find that months have passed in the city.

The reason for this is not explained until – maybe – the end. The story deals with the problems of bridging rivers and gorges and climbing mountains as we discover the strange world that the protagonist – Helward Mann – lives in.

It is fascinating and somewhat claustrophobic story. The reader is constantly trying to make sense of the strange time/topographical features of the world, which serves as a useful distraction to problems with the plot or characters and compels the reader to the conclusion to find out “what the heck is going on????”

Alas, I found the conclusion to be muddled. I wasn’t sure if the city residents description of their reality was true or was supposed to be a subjective hallucination caused by the power system used by the city.

Priest’s writing technique in “The Inverted World” is mildly unconventional. He would alternate between chapters told in the first person by Helward Mann and chapters told in the third person by some other person, which added to the sense of confusion.

Thus, in The Inverted World we have themes of an unreliable narrator and utter confusion about what is going on, really.

The Separation (2002) is my second Christopher Priest book.

It is very well-written, but the themes of unreliable narrator and ultimate confusion about what is going on have become more acute. The writing is good. The presentation is compelling, However, if you are trying to keep the details straight, you will go bonkers.

Which seems to be the point.

The Separation appears to be an alternate-history (Alt-hist) science fiction book. At least that was how I was diagnosing it, until I thought it was maybe a mystery, but ultimately I concluded it was a very strange alt-hist novel.

The story starts with a historian named Stuart Gratton finishing a book tour on one of his books of oral history on Operation Barbarossa during World War II. Gratton’s specialty is obtaining oral histories – the lived stories of people who fought during World War II. Almost immediately, Priest starts dropping hints to the experienced science fiction reader that we are dealing with a time-line that is not exactly our own. Priest via Gratton mention the “Sino-American War in the mid-1940s.” Well, that didn’t happen, unless he is referring to American troops that were in China during Mao’s conquest of China. My dad mentioned drinking Tsingtao beer in Tsingtao as he heard Communist shelling in the mountains when he was in the Navy in approximately 1949. So, maybe something like that was a jump-off for this alt-hist.

Otherwise, it seems that Gratton’s history was much like ours. It seems that America did become involved in the European War and Germany was defeated. On the other hand, there is a reference to the Republic of Masada, which seems to be a Jewish State on the island of Madagascar. The deportation of European Jews to Madagascar was an idea floated by the National Socialists as a solution for the “Jewish Problem.”

Gratton is toying with the idea of hunting down a strange reference in Winston Churchill’s notes about a “J.L. Sawyer” who was both a conscientious objector and a RAF bomber pilot. That is a strange combination and Gratton thinks there may be a short book in the subject.

He is presented with the memoirs that might be from man’s daughter – Miss Angela Chipperton – in which we learn that there were two J.L. Sawyers. They were twins and rowed for England during the 1936 Olympics in Berlin. One of them (“Jack” or “J.L.”) met Deputy Fuhrer Rudolf Hess. The other (“Joe”) smuggled a Jewish girl out of Germany (Birgitte), whom he subsequently married. Jack became a bomber pilot; Joe became a conscientious objector.

We learn that Joe was killed in London during the Blitz. Jack was shot down and then assigned to work for Churchill for a short time, returned to the air war, was shot down again, spent two years in a German POW camp, learned that Birgitte had remarried, and then learns that he had a daughter – Angela – with Birgitte from an affair he had with her. Joe goes to Australia and seems never to have met Angela, except Angela gave Gratton the notes we are supposedly reading.

Thus starts the confusion.

The theme of twin confusion is repeated through the book. Hess chortles to Jack about the crazy pranks he and his brother must have played as identical twins. Later we learn that Churchill used a double to visit the bombed out British. Later still, Jack is assigned to meet Deputy Fuhrer Hess in a British POW camp after Hess’s crazy flight to England on May 10, 1941 in an effort to broker peace between Germany and England. Jack determines that the man the British are holding is an imposter, which is a bit of this-timeline speculation. (Although “Hess” never denied being Hess during 40 years of imprisonment…as far as the public knows.)

The story keeps looping around to May 10, 1941. That was the day that Gratton selects as his jump off point because he was born on that day. It was the day of Hess’s flight to Germany while being chased by the Luftwaffe. Jack sees the chase on a bombing run to Hamburg.

Then, the story starts to change in subtle, confusing, and jarring ways. We learn from Jack’s Jewish navigator writing to Gratton from the Republic of Masada that he was the only survivor from the flight that Jack’s memoirs claimed he survived and rescued the navigator. The two of them were rescued in the North Sea according to Jack’s memoirs, but according to the navigator’s letter to Gratton, only he was rescued.

We also learn that Jack claimed to have been married to Birgitte. Was this true or was Jack lying to his crew to cover up the affair.

Jack confirms to Churchill in 1941 that Joe was killed in the Blitz in 1940, but Birgitte gets a letter in 1940 telling her that Joe was discovered alive in a men’s home with a concussion. Joe survives, joins the Red Cross, and then meet with Deputy Fuhrer Hess in 1941 in Portugal.

At this point, the reader starts wondering if he has misread the earlier chapters.

Joe and Birgitte’s marriage is on the rocks, but Birgitte and he have a child – maybe Jack’s child – who is a boy, not Angela. Angela disappears from the story as does Stuart Gratton. By the end of the story, Joe has helped to broker peace between Germany and England in 1941, which leads to a stronger post-war England, America invades Russia through China, and Germany withdraws from Western Europe.

We are now truly in an Alt-hist story.

All of this is told through memoirs, news clippings, and journal entries.

It is all fascinating. The change from one history to a completely different history is subtle. The reader initially is left thinking that they just misremembered things or perhaps the narrator lied. Maybe Joe lied to Churchill about the death of his brother in 1940? Maybe Joe did die in that time line. In the final timeline, it does not seem that Churchill ever met Jack, although he did meet Joe.

So, by the end of the novel, we have a really interesting, well-done experience – well-written, captivating, engaging – that leaves us wondering “what is going on here????”

Just like The Inverted World.

Along with May 10, 1941, the latter part of the story – the Joe Timeline – loops around Joe waking up in an ambulance from his concussion. We are repeatedly treated to long scenes where Joe moves forward into the future only to wake up again in the ambulance. There is a brief interlude where the report of a Red Cross psychologist describes Joe’s concern that he may be hallucinating his current existence. It may be the case that the entire Joe Timeline is simply the report of a very unreliable narrator waking up from a concussion.

Again, an ambiguous ending like The Inverted World.

Ultimately, this is a work of literature, not really science fiction. Literature is about characters; science fiction is about plot and setting. The real story here is about the characters and seeing them engage with different and changing stimuli. Certainly, there is a plot and setting, but both are shifting, almost dreamlike affairs, with no fixed points.

I enjoyed the story. I would recommend it to someone with a high tolerance for ambiguity and reflection.

[Michael Whiteman · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an alternate history and a deep psychological portrait of a pair of identical twins. It takes on some of Christopher Priest's regular themes - duality and doubles, war, the unreliability of memory, parallel or fantasy/imagined worlds - but stands as one of his strongest.

The idea of Rudolf Hess' flight to Scotland bringing a peace between Britain and Germany in 1941 is a nice choice of "branching" for the alternate history but the actual speculative aspects are less to do with the future impact of the changed events and more about the time leading up to them.

The framing story does go into the effects of one outcome but the frame is only about 1/10th of the book. The meat is the personal journals and rememberings of each of the twins.

Given that one twin is an RAF bomber pilot and the other is a conscientious objector, we get the expected contemplation on the role of war and whether it can ever be moral. I didn't feel that one side was shown to be the "correct" view and the emphasis is more on the doubts that plague even the most strongly-held convictions.

Churchill is perhaps the exception here but, even then, we see how differently things can go when strong personalities are convinced one way or the other.

As usual for Priest, there are no simple answers to exactly what is going on. The plot jumps back and forward in time and between narrators, characters' identities are called into question and which timeline is the "real" one is not going to be revealed. I don't think it is really relevant; the interest is in the doubts and possibilities that the different and sometimes contradictory events raise.

I could see people dismissing the ending as cheap but I think it is earned by the story. Overall, one of Priest's best that I've read.

[Preetam Chatterjee · Rating 5 out of 5]

This tome is a masterclass in alternate history and psychological complexity, a novel that intertwines political divergence with profound human and emotional inquiry. First published in 1994, the book opens with a striking historical premise: in 1940, during World War II, two branches of the same family experience different realities due to a temporal bifurcation, resulting in two distinct worlds where the outcomes of the war—and the lives of the individuals involved—diverge dramatically. Priest’s work is both intellectually ambitious and emotionally resonant, blending the speculative possibilities of alternate history with a deeply reflective meditation on memory, identity, and moral responsibility.

At the narrative’s core is Joe Fernwright, a British intelligence officer whose life—and the lives of those around him—becomes fragmented by this divergence. Priest examines not only the political and military ramifications of the alternate history but also the intimate, human consequences of such a split. The novel foregrounds personal and ethical dilemmas, exploring how individuals navigate loyalty, duty, love, and memory in worlds that are both familiar and fundamentally altered. The dual realities create a narrative tension that is as psychological as it is geopolitical, compelling readers to consider how personal identity is shaped by circumstance, choice, and historical contingency.

Priest’s world-building is meticulous and immersive. Both realities—the one in which the Nazis win significant victories and the one where history follows a more recognizable trajectory—are rendered with precision, encompassing political, social, and cultural details that ground the speculative elements in plausibility. Military campaigns, espionage operations, and social hierarchies are depicted with historical awareness, while the psychological and moral dimensions of life under divergent circumstances are explored with sensitivity. Priest’s attention to detail ensures that the alternate world is coherent, internally consistent, and ethically resonant, making the consequences of divergence tangible and compelling.

Characterization is a central strength. Joe Fernwright and the other members of his family are richly developed, morally nuanced, and psychologically complex. Priest explores how identity, memory, and ethical reasoning evolve under radically altered circumstances, showing how individuals negotiate competing obligations, loyalty, and personal desire. Secondary characters are equally textured, their choices and fates illustrating the interplay of human agency, historical circumstance, and moral consequence. The dual realities provide a lens through which the reader can examine the resilience and fragility of character when confronted with ethical dilemmas and shifting historical tides.

Thematically, The Separation interrogates memory, identity, and moral responsibility against the backdrop of historical contingency. Priest examines how the past shapes the present and how small divergences can cascade into profound ethical and personal consequences. The novel is as concerned with internal, psychological landscapes as it is with external political and military developments, emphasizing that the human dimension of history—ethical decision-making, emotional bonds, and personal responsibility—is inseparable from geopolitical events. Memory, in particular, becomes a narrative and thematic device, linking the dual realities and inviting reflection on the ways in which perception, experience, and choice define both personal and historical outcomes.

The prose is precise, contemplative, and rhythmically attuned to the oscillation between suspenseful narrative and reflective meditation. Priest’s language balances clarity with subtle psychological and emotional resonance, allowing readers to inhabit both the tension of espionage and the intimate ethical dilemmas of character. Dialogue reveals personality, social context, and ideological conflict, while descriptive passages establish setting, atmosphere, and historical plausibility. The effect is immersive, allowing readers to navigate the complex interplay of historical and psychological forces while remaining attuned to the moral and emotional stakes of the narrative.

Conflict in The Separation is multifaceted. Political and military tensions provide suspense, but Priest’s primary focus is the ethical, psychological, and emotional conflicts experienced by his characters. The dual realities magnify these tensions, highlighting how divergent circumstances can alter perception, loyalty, and moral reasoning. The novel emphasizes that history is not merely a sequence of events but a web of ethical choices, personal consequences, and relational dynamics, where individual actions reverberate across lives, societies, and temporal realities.

The novel also engages with broader philosophical and ethical questions. Priest examines the nature of causality, the contingency of historical events, and the moral weight of decisions under conditions of uncertainty. Through the interplay of dual realities, the narrative questions the determinacy of history and challenges readers to consider the ethical implications of choice, action, and inaction. These inquiries are deeply humanistic, reflecting the enduring complexity of moral and existential dilemmas in the midst of social and political upheaval.

Ultimately, The Separation is a meditation on human agency, ethical responsibility, and the fragility of identity in a world shaped by contingency. Priest demonstrates that historical divergence is inseparable from personal consequence, that memory and moral reasoning are central to understanding both individual lives and the broader sweep of history. By intertwining alternate historical events with psychological and emotional depth, the novel illuminates the intricate connections between external circumstance and internal life, inviting readers to reflect on the moral, ethical, and existential dimensions of choice.

In conclusion, Christopher Priest’s The Separation is a masterful, immersive work of alternate history and psychological reflection. Through dual realities, nuanced characterization, meticulous historical reconstruction, and reflective prose, the novel explores the interplay of identity, morality, and historical contingency. Priest combines intellectual rigor with emotional resonance, creating a narrative that is as thought-provoking as it is engaging.

It is a story that lingers, challenging readers to consider how circumstance, choice, and memory shape both personal destiny and historical outcomes, making it a deeply reflective and morally compelling exploration of the human condition.

[Hakim · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am baffled by the rating of this novel on this platform. It does not even begin to do justice to such a profound and incomparable work of art.

The immersion into The Separation was very unsettling, in a very good way. It taps into a deep, complex sense of mystery, the horrors of WWII, the difficult relationship between a set of twins, and it messes with you until the very end, in pure Priest fashion.

Some of the characters are well known historical figures. I tend to dislike this trope, but in this book, Priest uses them brilliantly, in a way that enriches the plot, and instills tension and grandeur into the narrative. The author's ability to develop his characters organically truly stands out as one of the main qualities of the novel. The concept of a rift in reality caused by the separation of twins is also astoundingly original.

If it were for me, I would categorize this as alt history or literary horror, not science fiction. This matters little, however, as The Separation will blow your mind regardless of genre.

[Kriegslok · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the first book I've read by Christopher Priest but I'll be tracking down the rest now to see if they are as good as good. There are several interwoven alternate histories spread across the Twentieth Century and (I think) it is left to the reader to decide which is "real". The story is structured around win brothers growing up immediately before the outbreak of WWII. The author has done a pretty good job at injecting a convincing air of authenticity to the events (real and imagined). The book also deals with the moral predicament of pacifism in the face of a genocidally inclined aggressor.I found the detailed accounts of the bomber crews flights and feelings particularly good. The book also raises the issue of how history is created and presented and remains a living thing always subject to the conditions under which it is created or reinterpreted. A rewarding read and one it pays to be in an alert state of mind for.

[Liviu · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another book that kept me late at night as a very gripping read but when I finished it I was left a little cold - and for the same reason as in Thirteen Years later, the big picture did not add up; I understand if you are from the UK to be cheered by the premise of the novel that by making a deal with the devil, Britain kept its supremacy to the present, rather than becoming a second tier power, but the simplistic view of Nazi Germany (airlift of Jews to Madagascar - what about the Polish and Russian Jews, after all they were the majority of the Holocaust victims, retreat from the occupied territories in the West just like that) is naive at best, since I would credit the author not to be a follower of recent revisionists...

The Separation is very well written, but while its subject may warm the heart of a British nationalist, it was way too simplistic for the praises it got

[Marco Bucci · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5, rounded up to 5. Priest’s books are all intricate puzzles, and I never feel I’ve ‘solved’ one of his books upon first reading. But I think that’s yet another layer to his narratives: you don’t know what you know, even after it’s over. I don’t even know that Priest himself knows. If he does, he sure is stingy about giving the reader any feedback in the text. That will turn some off, but it works for me. I found myself often going back in search of this paragraph or that, trying to find a small detail a hundred pages ago that may stand in opposition or agreement to what I was currently reading. Every word felt precious, in a way that only Christopher Priest books manage. I’m going to reluctantly put this one back on the shelf for now, but I don’t think I’ll be at peace with it until I read it over again. Dammit.

[Juan Raffo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Como siempre me pasa con este tipo de historias, me deja un sabor amargo ese fluctuar sin explicación entra la razón y la irracionalidad, entre las alucinaciones y la vida real (si, tampoco me gusta Dick). Hermanos gemelos, universos paralelos y la locura, pareciera que el tema le encanta a Priest. Puede que no me guste lo que cuenta, pero muy bien contado.

Interesante la ucrónica historia del mundo luego de finalizar la Segunda Guerra Mundial en 1941 pero C.P. nos deja con ganas de más.

Mucho mejor el título en inglés: La Separación, refleja mejor la separación entre ambos hermanos y la separación de líneas temporales ¿Cual habrá sido la intención al cambiarlo?

[Okenwillow · Rating 4 out of 5]

Le prestige m’avait subjuguée, je poursuis donc, ébahie, ma découverte de Priest. Dans le genre « je comprends pas tout mais j’adhère », Priest se pose là. Il nous propose l’histoire de jumeaux embarqués dans la grande Histoire, à coups de points de vues divergents, contradictoires, et improbables. À la limite de l’uchronie mais point tout à fait, une belle acrobatie narrative, pleine de rebondissements.

[Charlotte Bidard · Rating 2 out of 5]

DNF stopped p302 .... I really enjoy and read lots of alternate story (La part de l’autre, The plot against America) just to name a few. It started well but I could not make sense of the last half.

The story and the characters were interesting BUT the execution was way too confusing for me. The narrative and back and forth confuses things further. I really, really wanted to finish it but I did not enjoy this book.