Fiction about Separation

All around the world right now, lovers, friends and family members have been separated by Covid-19 lock-down procedures. We know it's only for a short time, and yes we are lucky to live in an age where we can easily communicate online, but it's still hard. People miss that face-to-face connection. Here's a selection of novels (all available through the library's e-collections) featuring lovers divided by circumstances, often lasting years.

Who can forget Atonement, Ian McEwan's novel about Cecilia and Robbie, first of all separated by class, next separated by a lie and then by World War II. All they have to hold on to is an image of a holiday cottage, where they might again meet one day. The novel was made into a film starring Keira Knightley, James McAvoy and Romola Garai. "Smoulders with slow-burning menace," said The Times.

Love, Rosie by Cecelia Ahern (originally Where Rainbows End) is the story of Alex and Rosie, best friends since forever. When Alex's family move to the US, fate conspires to keep the besties apart - everything thing that can go wrong, goes wrong, misunderstandings, misconnections, missed chances. Can there be any hope for something bigger than friendship? Another book that made it to the big screen - these long-distance affairs of the heart make for great movies.

Last Christmas in Paris by Hazel Gaynor and Heather Web is set during the years of World War I. Evie watches her brother Will go off to war with his pal, Thomas. All three plan to celebrate with a holiday in Paris when the war is over, surely by Christmas. But as the war drags on and Paris seems ever more distant, Evie and Thomas get to know each other through letters, sharing their hopes and fears, and developing feelings for each other from afar.

Still Me by Jojo Moyes is the third novel in the popular series that started with Me Before You. Louisa Clark takes on a job in New York among the super-rich, confident that she can maintain her relationship with Ambulance Sam thousands of miles back home in England. A story about finding the courage to follow your heart, this is a warm, humorous and touching novel from one of the best in the game.

In March, Gerladine Brooks imagines the story of the missing father from Lousia May Alcott's novel, Little Women. This is quite a different kind of story altogether, though. March, a man of firm abolitionist beliefs, enlists as a chaplain on the Union side in the American Civil War. Here he will witness racism and brutality, become seriously ill and struggle to maintain his faith before having to reconnect with his family a changed man. A compelling tour de force which won the Pullizer Prize.

Posted by JAM