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  • Published: 25 March 2015
  • ISBN: 9780241966051
  • Imprint: Penguin General UK
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 400
  • RRP: $24.99

The Separation




A sweeping novel set in 1950s Malaya, about a mother searching for her daughters

A country at war with itself,
a family divided and betrayed. . .

Malaya, 1955. Lydia Cartwright returns from visiting a sick friend to an empty house. The servants are gone. The phone is dead. Where is her husband Alec? Her young daughters, Emma and Fleur?

Fearful and desperate, she contacts the British District Officer and learns that Alec has been posted up country. But why didn't he wait? Why did he leave no message?

Lydia's search takes her on a hazardous journey through war-torn jungle. Forced to turn to Jack Harding, a man she'd vowed to leave in her past, she sacrifices everything to be reunited with her family.

And while carrying her own secrets, Lydia will soon face a devastating betrayal which may be more than she can bear . . .

  • Published: 25 March 2015
  • ISBN: 9780241966051
  • Imprint: Penguin General UK
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 400
  • RRP: $24.99

About the author

Dinah Jefferies

Dinah Jefferies was born in Malaya in 1948 and moved to England at the age of nine. She has worked in education, once lived in a rock n roll commune and, more recently, been an exhibiting artist. She spends her days writing, with time off to make tiaras and dinosaurs with her grandchildren. She has previously published The Separation with Viking, and The Tea Planter's Wife is her second novel.

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Praise for The Separation

An utterly captivating story of love and loss. Thrilling, gripping and intelligent

Kate Furnivall, Author of 'The Russian Concubine' and 'The Concubine's Secret'

A tense and steamy 1950s Malaya, beautifully described. I loved it

Lucinda Riley, Author of 'Hothouse Flower' and 'The Girl on the Cliff'