A Separate Peace is one such book. Where would I have found it, anyway? But it happened to be one of the choices in our last round of novel groups this school year (and my last ever at my current school). The description given by my teacher wasn't too detailed, but I was intrigued, and I felt like I would like it, and so I picked it. I'm happy about that. ( :
Gene Forrester goes to a Devon, a boys' boarding school in New Hampshire in World War II. He focuses on his schoolwork with the intention to do his best, but his roommate and best friend Phineas ("Finny") has very different ideas of what to do with the Summer Session. Finny is spectacular; Gene sees him as perfect. He walks so evenly, he's the best as sports, he talks smoothly, he can get himself out of any trouble, no matter how many rules he's broken. He also fails impressively at the academic side of school. But nonetheless, he is without flaws in Gene's mind; he needs nothing more to be perfect. When Finny begins to encourage the few boys remaining over that summer to jump out of this large tree and into the middle of the Devon River, the session turns deadly. Gene begins questioning his friendship with Finny, wondering how much is built on actual liking and how much on fierce competition. One day, Gene and Finny are about to do a double jump out of the tree when a blind impulse seizes Gene. Finny ends up with a broken leg, but more than his limb is shattered. This accident changes the entire lives of these two boys and, to a degree, their classmates' lives change as well. Amid the crazy world of 1942 and 1943, teenage boys learn about living and living together.