Product Description

On the hottest day of the summer of 1934, thirteen-year-old Briony Tallis sees her sister Cecilia strip off her clothes and plunge into the fountain in the garden of their country house. Watching her is Robbie Turner, her childhood friend who, like Cecilia, has recently come down from Cambridge. By the end of that day, the lives of all three will have been changed for ever. Robbie and Cecilia will have crossed a boundary they had not even imagined at its start, and will have become victims of the younger girl's imagination. Briony will have witnessed mysteries, and committed a crime for which she will spend the rest of her life trying to atone.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3382 in Books
• Published on: 2002-05-02
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 384 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
Atonement is Ian McEwan's ninth novel and his first since the Booker Prize-winning Amsterdam in 1998. But whereas Amsterdam was a slim, sleek piece, Atonement is a more sturdy, ambitious work, allowing McEwan more room to play, think and experiment.

We meet 13-year-old Briony Tallis in the summer of 1935, as she attempts to stage a production of her new drama The Trials of Arabella to welcome home her elder, idolised brother Leon. But she soon discovers that her cousins, the glamorous Lola and the twin boys Jackson and Pierrot, aren't up to the task, and directorial ambitions are abandoned as more interesting preoccupations come onto the scene. The charlady's son Robbie Turner appears to be forcing Briony's sister Cecilia to strip in the Fountain and sends her obscene letters; Leon has brought home a dim chocolate magnate keen for a war to promote his new "Army Amo" bar; and upstairs Briony's migraine-stricken mother Emily keeps tabs on the house from her bed. Soon, secrets emerge that change the lives of everyone present...

The interwar upper-middle-class setting of the book's long, masterfully sustained opening section might recall Virginia Woolf or Henry Green, but as we move forward--eventually to the turn of the 21st century--the novel's central concerns emerge, and McEwan's voice becomes clear, even personal. For at heart, Atonement is about the pleasures, pains and dangers of writing, and perhaps even more, about the challenge of controlling what readers make of your writing. McEwan shouldn't have any doubts about readers of Atonement: this is a thoughtful, provocative and at times moving book that will have readers applauding.--Alan Stewart

Review
Atonement is a magnificent novel, shaped and paced with awesome confidence and eloquence', Independent .'Subtle as well as powerful, adeptly encompassing comedy as well as atrocity, Atonement is a richly intricate book- A superb achievement which combines a magnificent display of the powers of the imagination with a probing exploration of them', Sunday Times .'He is this country's unrivalled literary giant...a fascinatingly strange, unique and gripping novel', Independent on Sunday

On the hottest day of the summer of 1935, thirteen year-old Briony Tallis, a girl with a strange mind and a facility with words is preparing to cast, direct and star in her first melodrama. By the end of the day The Trials of Arabella remains unperformed, but Briony's talent for fantasy starts a chain of events that will dramatically change the lives of many and haunt her for more than sixty years. Atonement has three distinct parts. The first, making up more than half the novel, describes the events of that summer's day in 1935. The Tallises are an affluent family living in middle class comfort in Surrey. Father is a hazy figure, a senior ministry figure working on plans for the impending war and carrying on a secret affair in London. Neither he nor his frail and anxious wife are significant influences in their three children's lives. Cecilia, newly graduated from Cambridge, is restless and uncertain about the path of her future life. Leon, less well defined as a character, is the older brother. Briony is the youngest child, immersed in a fantasy world of her own making, who through a false and careless accusation destroys the life of Cecilia's lover, Robbie Turner, and her prospects of happiness. In part two, the narrative moves to 1940. Robbie has been released from prison and is one of the thousands of British soldiers serving in France and fleeing to Dunkirk from the German army. Briony and Cecilia, estranged from one another, are suffering in their own purgatory as nurses in London. In the third, shorter (and least successful) section set in 1999 we discover that Briony, now in her seventies and a celebrated novelist, is the author of Atonement reminiscing on the terrible consequences of her youthful mistake. Atonement, McEwan's first novel since the Booker-winning Amsterdam, is an extraordinary achievement and possibly the finest work he has yet published. It is a engrossing book, full of narrative suspense and wonderfully defined characters. It is also a consciously literary novel, with allusions to Jane Austen, Elizabeth Bowen and Henry James, but with none of the ponderous self-importance that label often suggests. Atonement confirms McEwan's great talents and well deserves its place on the Booker shortlist. (Kirkus UK)

Independent
‘Atonement is a magnificent novel, shaped and paced with awesome confidence and eloquence'

Customer Reviews

Slow starter but worth sticking with
I found this book to start slowly and did not really seem very interesting. However, I thought that maybe I was expecting too much after all the recommendations I have had so decided to stick with it and give the story a proper chance. I am so glad I did this, the plot quicky beomces gripping after those first few dreary pages. You soon realise how important those first pages are in setting the scene and helping you understand all the characters. I really enjoyed this book and have been thinking about it since finishing and I will definitley be re-reading this

Brilliant Evocation of Life-Changing Events
Atonement is not a quick read, nor should it be. The warps and wens of language into which Ian McEwan delves are to be savoured like a delicious meal. The premise is that Briony Tallis, an overly-imaginative 13-year-old thinks she sees something, and the tale she spins based on this changes several lives. The story is told from the viewpoint of Briony, her sister Cecilia and family friend Robbie Turner. The novel has the feel of "Rashomon" in that each perspective makes the book feel like a completely different story.

There are some segments that were difficult for me to read - mostly those dealing with Briony's work in a hospital following the evacuation of Dunkirk, but the realities of war should not be sugarcoated, much as we might like to hide our eyes from them.

More than anything, Atonement is a character study, examining the various ways we rationalize our actions, for good or bad, and how we, yes, "atone" for those actions, if we ever bother to try. This is the kind of writing that other authors should aspire to, and which few achieve. Very highly recommended.

Words can't do it justice
This is simply what is called a masterpiece. A word too often used and not often enough deserved.The writing is incredible, so good that you could weep that some people have the talent to create such prose and you don't. At least you can read it which is a blessing indeed.
It is the story of a young girl, too clever by half, somewhat arrogant and presumptuous who misreads a situation, sees too much, understands too little and will ruin three lives, her sister's, that of the young man her sister is in love with, and her own as she has to live with the consequences of her act of betrayal.