The Day x Connell Guides - The Connell Short Guide to Ian McEwan's Atonement

When Ian McEwan’s Atonement was first published in 2001, the famous critic Frank Kermode described it as “easily his finest” novel. It was also a major commercial success, selling more than four million copies in Britain during its first decade in print. So what’s the secret of its success? As Theo Tait shows in this short but comprehensive guide, it is both a gripping yarn about love, survival and lives turned upside down, and an intricately crafted reflection on truth and memory, guilt and atonement, experience and literary tradition.