NATIONAL BESTSELLER A symphonic novel of love and war, childhood and class, guilt and forgiveness that provides all the satisfaction of a brilliant narrative and the provocation we have come to expect from the acclaimedBooker Prizewinning, internationally bestselling author.

One of the New York Timess 100 Best Books of the 21st Century

On a hot summer day in 1935, thirteen-year-old Briony Tallis witnesses a moments flirtation between her older sister, Cecilia, and Robbie Turner, the son of a servant and Cecilias childhood friend. But Brionys incomplete grasp of adult motivestogether with her precocious literary giftsbrings about a crime that will change all their lives.

As it follows that crimes repercussions through the chaos and carnage of World War II and into the close of the twentieth century, Atonement engages the reader on every conceivable level, with an ease and authority that mark it as a genuine masterpiece.