A Separate Peace

Written by John Knowles

Two friends' bond shatters, mirroring a world at war.

3.6 Goodreads · 236,265 ratings

206 pages· 56,787 words· Est. 5.5 hour read· 1030L

$17.99Save 6%

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Bookroo's summary

At a New England boarding school during WWII, Gene, a reserved intellectual, and Phineas, a daring athlete, navigate a summer that tests their friendship. As tensions rise, innocence fades, echoing the global conflict. What unfolds between them changes everything, leaving readers questioning loyalty and the loss of youth.

From the publisher

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.

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