Adult/High School-Set during the
seemingly idyllic summer of 1935 at the country estate of the Tallis
family, the first section of this thought-provoking novel ambles through
one scorchingly hot day that changes the lives of almost everyone
present. The catalyst is overly imaginative 13-year-old Briony, who
accuses Robbie, her sister's childhood friend and their housemaid's son,
of raping her cousin Lola. The young man is sent to prison and Cecilia,
heartbroken, abandons her family and becomes a nursing sister in
London. In the second part, McEwan vividly describes another single day,
this time Robbie's experiences during the ignominious British retreat
to Dunkirk early in World War II. Finally, readers meet Briony again,
now a nursing student. She is aware that she might have been wrong that
day five years earlier and begins to seek atonement, having clearly
ruined two lives. In a story within a story, McEwan brilliantly engages
readers in a tour de force of what ifs and might have beens until they
begin to wonder what actually happened. The story is compelling, the
characters well drawn and engaging, and the outcome is almost always in
doubt. The descriptions of the retreat and the subsequent
hospitalization of the soldiers are grim and realistic. Readers are
spared little, yet the journey is worth the observed pain and distress.
Well-read teens will find much to think about in this novel.-Susan H.
Woodcock, Chantilly Regional Library, VA