A tour de force… Every bit as affecting as it is gripping.” —The New York Times

BACK COVER:

On a 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. But Briony’s incomplete grasp of adult motives and her precocious imagination bring about a crime that will change all their lives, a crime whose repercussions Atonement follows through the chaos and carnage of World War II and into the close of the twentieth century.

REVIEW:

It takes patience to read this book but I promise you McEwan delivers a miraculous love story birthed in tragedy. It is impossible to forgive Briony, despite her endeavor to rewrite the future she stole from the young lovers. McEwan’s brilliant writing captures the immature mind of a thirteen-year-old desperate for attention and acceptance while showcasing humanity’s often inability to admit wrongdoing and accept consequences for doing such, as children and as adults. McEwan builds up Briony’s tendencies toward falsehood, misinterpretation, and creative imagination for quite a few chapters before this main event showcases her faults. Though beautifully written—McEwan has a talent for stringing along words and then sentences to present something picturesque and poignant to the writer—the first quarter of the book takes some endurance but I promise you, if you can get through these beginning slow chapters, what follows is worth a rainy afternoon spent lounging and reading.