94. Atonement by Ian McEwan

The Tallis family is gathering on a warm summer day in 1935 to have a dinner party celebrating the return of their son, Leon, for a family visit. When 13-year-old Briony opens a letter meant for her sister from a family friend, her overactive imagination causes a catastrophic chain of events that evening. Soon Robbie, the childhood friend and the son of the Tallis’s housemaid, is accused of raping a cousin who happens to be staying at the estate. Cecilia, Briony’s sister, cannot believe that he could have raped anyone, and leaves her family to become a nurse in London.

The second part of the book focuses on the British retreat to Dunkirk, with Robbie in the British army after his release from prison. Cecilia’s love and her letters keeps Robbie trying to survive, with the hope that he will make it back to England to meet her again. Meanwhile, Briony is a nurse herself, and decided that after five years of living with guilt, she must atone for her actions on that fateful day in 1935. Now a movie, this is a sweeping book that looks at innocence, desire, and guilt. In 2006, some readers questioned McEwan’s historical details of wartime nursing, which seemed similar to the writings of romance writer Lucilla Andrews. Check out this link for more information: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,923-2473382,00.html