Atonement (novel)

Atonement
Atonement cover
AuthorIan McEwan
Cover artistChris Frazer Smith
LanguageEnglish
PublisherJonathan Cape
Publication date
2001
Publication placeUnited Kingdom
Media typePrint (hardcover)
Pages371 pp
ISBN0-224-06252-2 (first edition)
OCLC47231087

Atonement is a 2001 British metafictional novel written by Ian McEwan. Set in three time periods, 1935 England, Second World War England and France, and present-day England, it covers an upper-class girl's half-innocent mistake that ruins lives, her adulthood in the shadow of that mistake, and a reflection on the nature of writing.

Widely regarded as one of McEwan's best works, it was shortlisted for the 2001 Booker Prize for fiction.[1] In 2010, Time magazine named Atonement in its list of the 100 greatest English-language novels since 1923.[2]

In 2007, the book was adapted into a BAFTA and Academy Award-winning film of the same title, starring Saoirse Ronan, James McAvoy, and Keira Knightley, and directed by Joe Wright.

  1. ^ Atonement, archived from the original on 16 May 2008, retrieved 1 July 2013
  2. ^ "All Time 100 Novels". Time. 16 October 2005. Archived from the original on 16 February 2010.