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Cover of Atonement

Atonement

Ian McEwan (2001)

SubgenreHistorical Romance
Age groupAdult 18+
Content ratingPG-13
Pages ()
SettingContemporary

Content levels

ViolenceNot rated
Sexual contentModerate
LanguageNot rated

Trigger warnings

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Positive tags

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Tropes

Royalty/Nobility

Themes

Family

Synopsis

Atonement is a 2001 British metafiction 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. In 2010, Time magazine named Atonement in its list of the 100 greatest English-language novels since 1923.