Atonement
A Novel
-
-
4.2 • 406 Ratings
-
-
- $9.99
Publisher Description
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, internationally bestselling author.
One of the New York Times’s 100 Best Books of the 21st Century • A Kirkus Reviews Best Fiction Book of the Century
“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.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
Romance, class tensions, the evils of war, struggles with the past—Atonement is a modernist masterpiece. During a heat wave in 1935, 13-year-old Briony falsely accuses her sister’s lover of sexual assault; the effects of her lie ripple for years to follow. Ian McEwan conjures scenes with such sensory nuance that we weren’t just imagining the languid, sunbaked afternoon at Briony’s family estate—we were diving into the pool, feeling the bracing water on our faces. McEwan’s level of detail translates beautifully into the film starring Kiera Knightly.
Customer Reviews
Briony’s novel
From the beginning Briony was my least favorite of the characters in the book. I hated her complicity in the trials of Robbie and Cecelia. I did like the ending except for the realization that Robbie and Cecelia were both killed in 1940 and never able to realize their redemptive love. If, as Briony’s character stipulates the novel would not be as pleasing to the audience should she not create a different ending in the book to be published after her death, why does she not let us believe they had a happy life ever after? I hate creative license—I prefer novels to be tied up wth a big red bow of happiness!
So Promising
and then, just a lazy, disappointing ending
So slow
Nope.