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Atonement

by Ian McEwan

Atonement Cover

Awards

2002 National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction
2001 Booker Prize Shortlist

Synopses & Reviews

Publisher Comments:

Ian McEwan's symphonic novel of love and war, childhood and class, guilt and forgiveness provides all the satisfaction of a brilliant narrative and the provocation we have come to expect from this master of English prose.

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.

Review:

"McEwan at his most closely observed and psychologically penetrating, and his most sweeping and expansive....With each book McEwan ranges wider, and his powers have never been more fully in evidence than here." Publishers Weekly

Review:

"Moving deftly between styles, this is a compelling exploration of guilt and the struggle for forgiveness." Library Journal

Review:

"A beautiful and majestic fictional panorama." John Updike, The New Yorker

Review:

"Not since the 19th century has a writer stepped in and out of his characters' minds with such unfettered confidence." The Plain Dealer

Review:

"No one now writing fiction in the English language surpasses Ian McEwan." The Washington Post Book World

About the Author

Ian McEwan has written two collections of stories, First Love, Last Rites and In Between the Sheets, and eight novels, The Cement Garden, The Comfort of Strangers, The Child in Time — winner of the 1987 Whitbread Novel of the Year Award — The Innocent, Black Dogs, The Daydreamer, Enduring Love, and Amsterdam — winner of the 1998 Booker Prize.

What Our Readers Are Saying

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Average customer rating based on 2 comments:
greengrl09, January 28, 2009 (view all comments by greengrl09)
Would you hate it if a thirteen-year-old girl ruined your life? Well in this story it happens. In the summer in London, a naïve thirteen-year-old girl named Briony thinks she knows what’s going on around her, but later realizes as she’s growing up, she’s mistaken. Briony thinks Robbie Turner, the gardener, is a sex maniac after reading a letter that Robbie wrote to Cecilia, (Briony’s older sister) about his affections to Cecilia. What Briony doesn’t know is that Cecilia feels the same way about Robbie. At the same night of the discovery of the love letter, at the Tallises house, Lola, Briony’s cousin from the north, is then raped. No one knows who it accepted Briony, but she only thinks she knows who did it. Robbie Turner. Briony then convicts Robbie. Cecilia knows he didn’t do it and isolates herself from her family. Robbie is framed and decides to fight in the war (WWII) instead of prison. The two questions now remain: Who really raped Lola? Do Robbie and Cecilia reunite at the end?
I can’t say much because I’ll ruin the end, but I enjoyed this book because of the love and affection Robbie & Cecilia have for each other. If you enjoy romantic, war, and mystery stories, then this is the book for you; it even shows that this can happen to anyone because this book is based on reality. I’m hoping that other people enjoyed it as much as I did. A little warning though, this story is very descriptive.
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chocochic53, January 28, 2009 (view all comments by chocochic53)
This book is an intense story of love, lies, family, and war. The way that Ian McEwan writes gives beautiful descriptive scenes, while also keeping the story moving at a good pace. Also, the way that you get so deep into the heads of all of the various characters creates an amazing experience where the reader gets transformed into each character that they are reading about at that time. I would recommend this book to veracious and timid readers alike. This is definitely a book to read over and over again!
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Product Details

ISBN:
9780307388841
Author:
McEwan, Ian
Publisher:
Anchor Books
Subject:
Historical - General
Subject:
Literary
Subject:
Sisters
Subject:
Country life
Publication Date:
November 2007
Binding:
Mass Market Paperbound
Language:
English
Pages:
480
Dimensions:
6.91x4.21x1.08 in. .51 lbs.

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