Gene was a lonely, introverted intellectual. Phineas was a handsome, taunting, daredevil athlete. What happened between them at school one summer during the early years of World War II is the subject of A SEPARATE PEACE.

A great bestseller for almost a decade - one of the most starkly moving parables ever written of the dark forces that brood over the tortured world of adolescence.

"I think it is the best-written, best designed and most moving novel I have read in many years. Beginning with a tiny incident among ordinary boys, it ends by being as deep and as big as evil itself." [Aubrey Menen]

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A classic anti-war novel which I read in college and loved and had almost completely forgotten, although parts of it were familiar as I read it again. The story is about the relationship between two boys at a private school in New Hampshire in 1944, as they live in the shadow of the world war. Gene is academically gifted, Finny athletic, and they are the best of friends, though not always. Gene begins to suspect that Finny is sabotaging his studies because of jealousy and on an impulse precipitates an accident which cripples his friend. He is consumed by guilt and confesses, but it is not certain that Finny actually believes him and the friendship becomes, if anything, even stronger in the days that follow. The lie at the core of their relationship is eventually the cause of another tragedy. Beautifully written and with a cast of wonderfully realized characters. I shouldn’t have waited to long to reread this one. [Don D'Ammassa, 11/16/11]