Atonement

In the summer of 1935, thirteen-year-old Briony Tallis misinterprets a moment between her sister Cecilia and Robbie Turner, the servant's son. Fueled by imagination and wounded pride, Briony’s accusation sets off a chain of events that will shatter lives and haunt her for decades.

As World war II engulfs Europe, the consequences of that single, devastating lie ripple outward—from the English countryside to the battlefields, and into the late twentieth century. Across these years, McEwan masterfully explores the burden of regret and the elusive hope of redemption.

With lyrical prose and psychological depth, Atonement traces the fragile lines between memory and truth, love and war, class and childhood, innocence and culpability. Ian McEwan’s acclaimed novel is both a deeply human love story and a profound meditation on the moral weight of our actions—and the stories we tell to live with them.