DrNefario
11/8/2015
Structurally, The Separation reminded me of Christopher Priest's earlier book, The Prestige. This is no bad thing, since The Prestige is one of my favourite books. The Separation is also a significant achievement, but for me it didn't quite match its predecessor in actual story.
Like Rhe Prestige, the book is composed of different accounts of the same historical events - kind of - with a framing story in the present. In this case, the accounts relate to (at least) two different versions of WW2, told through the stories of a pair of twins, one of whom becomes a bomber pilot and one of whom becomes a pacifist and an ambulance driver.
It's a great slice of history/alt-history, but I felt it lacked a bit of resolution, and I didn't quite see the point of the framing story, so it doesn't quite manage to supplant The Prestige in my affections. Well worth a read, though. 4/5