British novelist Ian McEwan’s eighth novel, Atonement, explores the far-reaching consequences of two crimes, both committed on a summer evening in 1935 at the English country estate of the Tallis family. The eldest child, Leon, returns home for a weekend visit with college friend and ambitious businessman, Paul Marshall. Eagerly awaiting Leon’s visit are his two sisters, Cecilia and Briony and his frail mother. The first crime is an assault on a young girl, a visiting cousin, who with her young twin brothers, has been left with her aunt while her own parent’s marriage unravels. The second crime occurs when the youngest Tallis sister, thirteen-year-old Briony, falsely accuses a childhood friend who is the son of one of the family’s servants of committing the assault. The powerful story draws the reader in, revealing the events leading up to the terrible evening through the eyes of each character. The book then follows the Tallis sisters and Robbie Turner as they live out the consequences of that fateful evening and endure the war that has enveloped Britain. Cecilia, in love with Robbie and sure of his innocence, turns her back on her family. Robbie, after years in prison, enlists in the British Army and we find him France in the midst of the historic retreat to the village of Dunkirk in 1940. Eventually Briony too turns away from her family guilt ridden and determined to atone for her crime. This excellent novel has won several awards including the Critics Circle Award for 2002 and was chosen as an ALA Notable Book and one of Publishers Weekly Best of 2002.