'Do you know what they call someone who doesn't drink, by the way, the Irish...? A pioneer. Isn't that gas? A pioneer. Like you're discovering a new continent.'On a Friday night in Dublin, Stephen Hanrahan ushers a young female colleague in from the summer rain to what was once his marital home. He's ready to work his magic. But Stephen's estranged wife and wayward daughter are about to crash back into his life, casting a history of repressed truths and painful secrets into the light.Set in the build-up to Ireland's historic divorce referendum of 1995, The Separation is an unsettling - and uproarious - journey into the dark heart of a disintegrating Dublin family.