Atonement

This novel opens at the Tallis country house in 1935, where thirteen-year-old Briony, a child who writes plays, misreads a scene between her sister Cecilia and Robbie Turner, the housekeeper's son, and later gives evidence that wrecks his life. The middle of the book follows Robbie toward Dunkirk and Briony into wartime nursing in London, while Cecilia lives apart from her family. The narrative keeps returning to that summer crime and to whether a later act of writing can amend it. It is a story about class, war, and the damage done by a child's certainty, told through shifting points of view.

Quarter-bound in salmon pink cloth with green Modigliani paper sides printed with a design by the artist. Printed endpapers.