Atonement, by Ian McEwan

I bought a copy of Ian McEwan's award-winning book about 6 months ago, and it sat on my bookshelf, gathering dust, until I read an article in The New York Times in early December. The article was a column in the "Week in Review" section of the December 3rd paper, written by Charles Isherwood. McEwan has been accused of plagiarizing sections of the acclaimed novel, using 'experiences' based on romance novelist Lucilla Andrews' own life as a nurse in a London hospital during World War II. Isherwood's tongue-in-cheek column lashes out at those "plagiarism furies" that were unleashed on McEwan, who has been defended by the likes of Thomas Pynchon and Zadie Smith. I picked up the book as a curiosity, to see what all the "fury" was about -- and was astonished by the beautiful writing. McEwan is a writer I have been meaning to read for years (Enduring Love has been sitting on my bookshelf for at least 6 or 7 years!) and now I wish I had read him before. Atonement begins in 1935, set in the English countryside on the Tallis family estate. Briony Tallis, 13 years old, helplessly imaginative and creative, is beginning rehearsals for her play, The Trials of Arabella, in honor of her older brother, Leon, and his visit home. Meanwhile, older sister Cecelia is engaged in an innocent flirtation with Robbie Turner, the charlady's son and protege of Cecelia's father. When Briony witnesses this seduction, what ensues is a novel of misinterpretation, calculated deceit and a crime which changes all of the characters' lives forever. The novel is a metafictional narrative and the characters are so vividly drawn, you can't help but be engaged and captured from the moment you first encounter them.