Atonement

At the Tallis family's country house in the summer of 1935, Briony, thirteen and already a writer of stories, glimpses a charged moment between her sister Cecilia and Robbie Turner, the charlady's son whose Cambridge education their father has paid for. She reads a note not meant for her and later surprises the two together. Understanding none of it, she names Robbie after her young cousin, staying at the house, is attacked that night. The novel follows the consequences: Robbie, wounded, retreating across France towards Dunkirk; Cecilia and Briony, estranged, working as nurses in wartime London; and Briony's long search for atonement, followed into old age as a novelist at the end of the century.

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About the book

Form

Novel

Genres

War, Love, Family (assigned by AI)

Set in

United Kingdom, France, 1935–1990s

First published

2001

Author's age

53 when first published

ISBN

9780224062527 (Jonathan Cape, United Kingdom)

9780385503952 (Nan A. Talese, United States)

9780385721790 (Vintage, United States)

9780099429791 (Vintage, United Kingdom)

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Wikidata