
By Ian McEwan
A young girl's misunderstanding leads to a life-altering crime amid war's chaos.
In 1935, young Briony Tallis misinterprets a flirtation between her sister and a family friend, setting off a chain of events that alter their lives forever. As World War II unfolds, the consequences of her actions ripple through time, challenging notions of love, guilt, and redemption. Can the past ever truly be atoned for?
NATIONAL BESTSELLER - A symphonic novel of love and war, childhood and class, guilt and forgiveness that provides all the satisfaction of a brilliant narrative and the provocation we have come to expect from the acclaimed Booker Prize-winning, international bestselling author. “A beautiful and majestic fictional panorama.” –John Updike, The New Yorker On a hot summer day in 1935, thirteen-year-old Briony Tallis witnesses a moment’s flirtation between her older sister, Cecilia, and Robbie Turner, the son of a servant and Cecilia’s childhood friend. But Briony’ s incomplete grasp of adult motives–together with her precocious literary gifts–brings about a crime that will change all their lives. As it follows that crime’s repercussions through the chaos and carnage of World War II and into the close of the twentieth century, Atonement engages the reader on every conceivable level, with an ease and authority that mark it as a genuine masterpiece.Don’t miss Ian McEwan’s new novel, Lessons, coming in September!
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Top contributors: Elaine R. · Literary Leslie