A Separate Peace

John Knowles

Apr 2014 · Sold by Simon and Schuster

About this ebook

Nominated as one of America’s best-loved novels by PBS’s The Great American Read.

An American classic and great bestseller for over thirty years, A Separate Peace is timeless in its description of adolescence during a period when the entire country was losing its innocence to World War II.

Set at a boys' boarding school in New England during the early years of World War II, A Separate Peace is a harrowing and luminous parable of the dark side of adolescence. Gene is a lonely, introverted intellectual. Phineas is a handsome, taunting, daredevil athlete. What happens between the two friends one summer, like the war itself, banishes the innocence of these boys and their world.

Ratings and reviews

I have to do this book for summer reading and to be honest I hated it at first. But I pushed forward and ended up loving the book. There are a few boring parts that seem to last forever. The story is emotional and heartbreaking. I definitely recommend.

When I started reading this book sophomore year the first few chapters seemed very black and white-- I didn't think the story would have any depth. It has amazing depth and gray area however that you will only see if you power through, brought tears to my eyes

A Separate Peace is a dramatic novel that takes the reader into a sensitive feeling of life among different personalities and of self-awareness amongst others. It has one become aware of some of the "tricky" dynamics amongst individuals together and in contrast to one another. The backdrop of a World War also plays into the dynamics.

About the author

John Knowles (1926–2001) was a graduate of Phillips Exeter Academy and Yale University, as well as a recipient of the William Faulkner Award and the Rosenthal Award of the National Institute of Arts and Letters. His books include Separate Peace, Peace Breaks Out, and The Paragon.