Ian McEwan, Booker Prize -- winning author of Amsterdam, has created a symphonic novel of love and war, childhood and class, guilt and forgiveness that provides all the satisfaction of a brilliant narrative combined with the provocation we have come to expect from this master of English prose. On a hot summer day in 1935, thirteen-year-old Briony Tallis witnesses a moment's flirtation between her older sister, Cecilia, and Robbie Turner, the son of a servant and Cecilia's childhood friend. But Briony's incomplete grasp of adult motives -- together with her precocious literary gifts -- forces a situation that will change the course of their lives. As it follows that event's 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.
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The Author leaves you breathless
In a time when we are blessed with a wealth of gifted writers, even though we still mourn the passing of the likes of WG Sebald, it is still a wonder to encounter a work of the magnitude of Ian McEwan's current masterwork ATONEMENT. Aside from he fact that McEwan has been consistently placing his fine, terse novels such as AMSTERDAM and ENDURING LOVE before us, there is little to prepare us for the grandeur of his magnum opus ATONEMENT. We have grown to expect this author's mastery of the English language, his uncanny sense of timing in creating stories that push forward fresh tales with the speed of a locomotive while finding beauty everywhere in the nature that he sees like few others. But nothing has prepared us for this masterwork. The story of ATONEMENT is well told by others commenting at this website. What makes this illuminating novel so momentous is the crux of a story at once seeming so simple but ending as an indelible landmark in contemporary writing. This is a contemplation of morality, of love, of the unspeakable disaster of war, of the indefatigable resources of the human soul, of the staggering implications of a lie from the lips of a child of what ever age, and of mortality, of love. If the first chapters of this book feel slow, making the reader ask why are we detailing every move of what appears to be another languid, hot summer day in a 1935 English household, we are slowly discovering this is a well paced prelude to the brassy blast that WWII exploded throughout the world. A family gathering becomes a microcosm for exploring the thoughtless poisons that produce devastating wars. Once the tale begins to unravel there is no turning back on the series of events that continue to surprise and amaze us and maintain a tension so great that only the interludes of McEwan's matchless descriptions of nature provide breathing room. The author creates characters so adroitly painted that they are destined to become enduring literary names to reference when...
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