On the hottest day of the summer of 1934, 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, her childhood friend 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. Robbie and Cecilia will have crossed a boundary they had not even imagined at its start, and will have become victims of the younger girl's imagination. Briony will have witnessed mysteries, and committed a crime for which she will spend the rest of her life trying to atone.

The magnificent book behind the acclaimed film starring Keira Knightley and James McAvoy.

About the Author
Ian McEwan is the critically acclaimed author of seventeen books. His first published work, a collection of short stories, First Love, Last Rites, won the Somerset Maugham Award. His novels include The Child in Time, which won the 1987 Whitbread Novel of the Year Award; The Cement Garden; Enduring Love; Amsterdam, which won the 1998 Booker Prize; Atonement; Saturday; On Chesil Beach; Solar; Sweet Tooth; The Children Act; and Nutshell, which was a Number One bestseller. Atonement and Enduring Love have both been turned into award-winning films, The Children Act and On Chesil Beach are in production and set for release this year, and filming is currently underway for a BBC TV adaptation of The Child in Time.

Reviews
He is this country's unrivalled literary giant...a fascinatingly strange, unique and gripping novel * Independent on Sunday *
Ian McEwan's highly-charged story of sin and forgiveness is masterfully told. Tense, shocking and heart-breaking in equal turn. * Grazia *
Atonement is a masterpiece...it is also an elegy to a time which, however volatile, still had certainties * The Times *
A beautiful and majestic fictional panorama
A deft and brilliant exploration of guilt, family and the rippling repercussions of a single moment in life * Red *



Book Information
ISBN 9780099507383
Author Ian McEwan
Format Paperback
Page Count 384
Imprint Vintage
Publisher Vintage Publishing
Weight(grams) 305g
Dimensions(mm) 198mm * 129mm * 23mm