Atonement (Reading Guide Edition) - Softcover

McEwan, Ian

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0099497042 ISBN 13: 9780099497042

Publisher: Vintage Classics, 2005

Synopsis

The publication of Atonement cemented Ian McEwan's reputation as one of the most exciting and accomplished writers of his generation. From its breath-taking opening section, telling the events of a fateful summer's day in 1935, McEwan unravels a tale of love and war that breaks the heart, even as the master novelist's provocative twists of form dazzle the senses.

About this title

Review:

Atonement is Ian McEwan's ninth novel and his first since the Booker Prize-winning Amsterdam in 1998. But whereas Amsterdam was a slim, sleek piece, Atonement is a more sturdy, ambitious work, allowing McEwan more room to play, think and experiment.

We meet 13-year-old Briony Tallis in the summer of 1935, as she attempts to stage a production of her new drama The Trials of Arabella to welcome home her elder, idolised brother Leon. But she soon discovers that her cousins, the glamorous Lola and the twin boys Jackson and Pierrot, aren't up to the task, and directorial ambitions are abandoned as more interesting preoccupations come onto the scene. The charlady's son Robbie Turner appears to be forcing Briony's sister Cecilia to strip in the Fountain and sends her obscene letters; Leon has brought home a dim chocolate magnate keen for a war to promote his new "Army Amo" bar; and upstairs Briony's migraine-stricken mother Emily keeps tabs on the house from her bed. Soon, secrets emerge that change the lives of everyone present...

The interwar upper-middle-class setting of the book's long, masterfully sustained opening section might recall Virginia Woolf or Henry Green, but as we move forward--eventually to the turn of the 21st century--the novel's central concerns emerge, and McEwan's voice becomes clear, even personal. For at heart, Atonement is about the pleasures, pains and dangers of writing, and perhaps even more, about the challenge of controlling what readers make of your writing. McEwan shouldn't have any doubts about readers of Atonement: this is a thoughtful, provocative and at times moving book that will have readers applauding.--Alan Stewart

Review:

"Atonement is a magnificent novel, shaped and paced with awesome confidence and eloquence" (Independent)

"Subtle as well as powerful, adeptly encompassing comedy as well as atrocity, Atonement is a richly intricate book- A superb achievement which combines a magnificent display of the powers of the imagination with a probing exploration of them" (Sunday Times)

"He is this country's unrivalled literary giant...a fascinatingly strange, unique and gripping novel" (Independent on Sunday)

"The narrative, as always with McEwan, smoulders with slow-burning menace. You know that, even as you savour the voluptuous sentences, something terrible will happen and sure enough it does" (The Times)

About this edition

• Publisher: Vintage Classics
• Publication date: 2005
• ISBN 10: 0099497042
• ISBN 13: 9780099497042
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 400