num_pages: 6
description: 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 the second world war. 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. A bestseller for more than thirty years, A Separate Peace is John Knowles's crowning achievement and an undisputed American classic.
language: English
title: A Separate Peace
titlecomplete: A Separate Peace
characters: Gene Forrester, Phineas
genres: Read For School, Coming Of Age, Historical Fiction, School, Novels, Young Adult, Literature, High School, Classics, Fiction
ratings_count: 214657
places: New Hampshire
awards: awardedAt: -283968000000
name: Rosenthal Family Foundation Award, awardedAt: -283968000000
name: William Faulkner Foundation Award, awardedAt: -283968000000
name: National Book Award Finalist
category: Fiction
publisher: Recorded Books, Inc.