AtonementFrom the Booker Prize winning author of Amsterdam, a brilliant new novel. On the hottest day of the summer of 1935, 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, son of the Tallis’s cleaning lady, whose education has been subsidized by Cecilia’s and Briony’s father, and who, like Cecilia, has recently come down from Cambridge. By day's end, their lives will be changed – irrevocably. Robbie and Cecilia will have crossed a boundary they had not imagined at its start. And Briony will have witnessed mysteries, seen an unspeakable word, and committed a crime for which she will spend the rest of her life trying to atone… Brilliant and utterly enthralling in its depiction of love and war and class and childhood and England, An Atonement is a profound – and profoundly moving – exploration of shame and forgiveness, of atonement and of the possibility of absolution. |
Contents
There were horrors enough but it was the unexpected | |
The unease was not confined to the hospital It seemed | |
London 1999 | |
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Common terms and phrases
already asked began beginning Briony Briony’s brother called carried Cecilia clear close corporals crossed dark door dress Emily everything eyes face feeling feet felt front gave girl gone half hand head heard held hour kind knew leave Leon letter light lived Lola looked Marshall mind minutes mother moved Nettle never night nurses once passed perhaps play pulled pushed reached remained remembered road Robbie round seemed seen sense shoulder side silence simply sister soldiers soon sound speak standing step stood stopped story talk Tallis tell thing thought told took touch turned Turner twins voice waiting walked wanted ward watched window writing