Atonement
Books | Fiction / Historical / 20th Century / World War II
3.7
(8.2K)
Ian McEwan
From the Booker Prize winning author of Amsterdam, a brilliant new novel. On the hottest day of the summer of 1935, 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, son of the Tallis’s cleaning lady, whose education has been subsidized by Cecilia’s and Briony’s father, and who, like Cecilia, has recently come down from Cambridge. By day's end, their lives will be changed – irrevocably. Robbie and Cecilia will have crossed a boundary they had not imagined at its start. And Briony will have witnessed mysteries, seen an unspeakable word, and committed a crime for which she will spend the rest of her life trying to atone… Brilliant and utterly enthralling in its depiction of love and war and class and childhood and England, An Atonement is a profound – and profoundly moving – exploration of shame and forgiveness, of atonement and of the possibility of absolution.
Romance
Historical Fiction
British Classics
AD
More Details:
Author
Ian McEwan
Pages
368
Publisher
Knopf Canada
Published Date
2009-03-19
ISBN
0307371492 9780307371492
Ratings
Google: 4
Community ReviewsSee all
"My favorite book and movie of all time. Definitly a tear jerker"
L H
Leilah Hussain
"Heartbreaking "
C S
Christin Stanford
"Cried at the end because of how sentimental the ending was. Maybe I need to be older to read this, maybe I’m just not the right audience, but I find that the story really drags in between. I’m not asking for immediate gratification, especially from a character-driven novel such as this, but I find that some parts are especially overdone.<br/><br/>McEwan’s writing and works are really meant for a specific kind of audience—one that is willing to undergo longevity and slow-paced emotionally-centred work."
S
Sinorcanut
"Why oh why did I take so long to get around to reading this? I had seen the movie; lovely and sad, but with little depth. Here lies depth. By turns a fraught tale of class and sexual awakening, of precocious childhood frustrations, and of the numbing horrors of war, McEwan effortlessly puts us inside the head of each of his 3 major characters, as the inevitable tragedy enfolds them all. A brilliant and heartbreaking work."
L W
Lesley Williams
"An appealing writing style and semi satisfying narrative with an anticlimactic ending and a grating central character."
M H
Maya Harry
"The cover makes this look gothic, but aside from not being so, it is a wonderful story of a wrong and the subsequent, well, atonement."
R M
Ricki Marking-Camuto
"I recommend this book to any who love a good tragedy. It tore me to pieces when I finished it. One of my favorites. "
R P
Rebecca Pearce
"My fav book! A little slow in the first 15pgs (it helps the plot) but it’s so amazing! there’s many twists and turns! The ending is quite something! 10/10"
D J
Danialle Janutolo
"A deep exploration into emotions; our understanding of the world/ happenings based on our class, education, age; our decisions and impacts on life; memories and reinterpretation of events to help us atone. A wonderful and clever novel. "
C S
Candice Sham
"Just a stunningly written novel."
K W
Karen Whitaker
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