A powerful look at the dark side of adolescence

As the school year beckons, try to squeeze in this little-appreciated, rather unfashionable classic. Set at a boarding school, on the brink of World War II, the novel has a resonance today as battles rage–from schoolyards to global battlefields. The powerful tale of an introvert and a daredevil makes one ask: Do we indeed know our enemies?

A Separate Peace

By John Knowles

Scribner, 204 pages, $9 paper