Description

‘The best thing he has ever written’ Observer

‘A person is, among all else, a material thing, easily torn and not easily mended’

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 too is Robbie Turner 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, as Briony commits a crime for which she will spend the rest of her life trying to atone.

**ONE OF THE GUARDIAN’S 100 BEST BOOKS OF THE 21st CENTURY**

Publisher Review

Smoulders with slow-burning menace * The Times * A complex, thought-provoking novel. -- Fanny Blake * Woman and Home * Brilliantly explores the currents of guilt, shame and anger... Utterly satisfying, complete * Scotsman * An evocative depiction of the dangers of innocence and ignorance in the face of uncomfortable reality. * Herald * Atonement is a masterpiece...it is also an elegy to a time which, however volatile, still had certainties * The Times * Subtle as well as powerful, adeptly encompassing comedy as well as atrocity, Atonement is a richly intricate book... A superb achievement * Sunday Times * A beautiful and majestic fictional panorama -- John Updike McEwan's best novel so far, his masterpiece * Evening Standard * He is this country's unrivalled literary giant...a fascinatingly strange, unique and gripping novel * Independent on Sunday * The best thing he has ever written * Observer * A superb achievement * New York Times * A magnificent novel * Independent *