description: On the hottest day of the summer of 1935, thirteen-year-old Briony Tallis sees her older sister Cecilia strip off her clothes and plunge into the fountain in the garden of their country house. Watching Cecilia is their housekeeper's son Robbie Turner, a childhood friend who, along with Briony's sister, has recently graduated from Cambridge. By the end of the day the lives of all three will have been changed forever. Robbie and Cecilia will have crossed a boundary they had not dared to approach and will have become victims of the younger girl's scheming imagination. And Briony will have committed a dreadful crime, the guilt for which will color her entire life. Atonement is at its center a profound--and profoundly moving--exploration of shame, forgiveness and the difficulty in absolution.
language: English
title: Atonement
titlecomplete: Atonement
characters: Jackson Quincey, Pierrot Quincey, Leon Tallis, Paul Marshall, Briony Tallis, Emily Tallis, Cecilia Tallis, Robbie Turner, Lola Quincey
genres: Classics, Historical, Novels, War, Romance, Historical Fiction, Literature, Contemporary, Literary Fiction, Fiction
ratings_count: 507716
places: France, United Kingdom, London, England, England
awards: awardedAt: 978336000000
name: Booker Prize, awardedAt: 978336000000
name: James Tait Black Memorial Prize
category: Fiction, awardedAt: 978336000000
name: Whitbread Award
category: Novel, awardedAt: 1009872000000
name: WH Smith Literary Award, awardedAt: 1009872000000
name: Los Angeles Times Book Prize
category: Fiction, awardedAt: 1009872000000
name: Exclusive Books Boeke Prize, awardedAt: 1041408000000
name: Deutscher Buchpreis (German Book Prize)
category: Internationale Belletristik, awardedAt: 1009872000000
name: National Book Critics Circle Award
category: Fiction, awardedAt: 1009872000000
name: Commonwealth Writers' Prize
category: Best Book in South Asia and Europe, awardedAt: 1041408000000
name: Premi Llibreter de narrativa, awardedAt: 1041408000000
name: Dublin Literary Award
publisher: New Millennium (GB)