National Bestseller

Ian McEwanÕs 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 momentÕs flirtation between her older sister, Cecilia, and Robbie Turner, the son of a servant and CeciliaÕs childhood friend. But BrionyÕ s incomplete grasp of adult motivesÐtogether with her precocious literary giftsÐbrings about a crime that will change all their lives. As it follows that crimeÕs 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.