Atonement: A Novel [Paperback]

National Bestseller 

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,Atonementengages the reader on every conceivable level, with an ease and authority that mark it as a genuine masterpiece.“A beautiful and majestic fictional panorama.” —John Updike,The New Yorker

“Flat-out brilliant. . . . Lush, detailed, vibrantly colored and intense.” —San Francisco Chronicle

“A tour de force. . . . Every bit as affecting as it is gripping.” —Michiko Kakutani,The New York Times

“Luminous. . . .Atonementis brilliant and like nothing he’s ever written before.” —Newsweek

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

“Brilliant. . . . McEwan could be the most psychologically astute writer working today, our era’s Jane Austen.” —Esquire

“A work of astonishing depth and humanity.” —The Economist

“His most complete and passionate book to date.” —The New York Times Book Review

“In the seriousness of its intentions and l{