Atonement is a novel written by Ian McEwan and first published in 2001. Atonement might be considered an historical novel since most part of the book is set in England and in France before, during and after World War II, but it is most often considered a metafiction novel.
Many events of Atonement are related to events that really happened during World War II: fought between 1939 and 1945, the Second World War has been certainly the most terrible war to be fought in history and the number of casualties among the civilian population was enormous because of the new military tactics of massive aerial bombardment of enemy cities. During World War II, the United Kingdom fought alongside with France and with the United States of America and against …show more content…
Despite his social class, Robbie is very smart and the beginning of the story he is studying in Cambridge thanks to the Tallis’ economical help. However, after his arrest, the Tallis, except for Cecilia and Briony, forgets about him and because of that Cecilia decides to leave her parents’ home.
Atonement is a book about reality as we perceive it and as it really is: at the end of the novel we find out that the story is made up not only by McEwan, the writer, but also by Briony, one of the characters of the book. Briony, that since the beginning of the novel likes to make up her own stories, ends up creating her own version of her own reality, without creating a fantasy world but just by sticking to the real world and how it could have been.
Atonement reached immediately a great success: in 2001 it was shortlisted for the Book Prize for fiction, in 2002 it won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for fiction, the National Book Critics Circle Award, the WH Smith Literary Award and the Time named it best novel of the year. In 2007 a film adaptation of the novel was released: the film was directed by Joe Wright and starred Keira Knightley, James McAvoy and Saoirse
Many events of Atonement are related to events that really happened during World War II: fought between 1939 and 1945, the Second World War has been certainly the most terrible war to be fought in history and the number of casualties among the civilian population was enormous because of the new military tactics of massive aerial bombardment of enemy cities. During World War II, the United Kingdom fought alongside with France and with the United States of America and against …show more content…
Despite his social class, Robbie is very smart and the beginning of the story he is studying in Cambridge thanks to the Tallis’ economical help. However, after his arrest, the Tallis, except for Cecilia and Briony, forgets about him and because of that Cecilia decides to leave her parents’ home.
Atonement is a book about reality as we perceive it and as it really is: at the end of the novel we find out that the story is made up not only by McEwan, the writer, but also by Briony, one of the characters of the book. Briony, that since the beginning of the novel likes to make up her own stories, ends up creating her own version of her own reality, without creating a fantasy world but just by sticking to the real world and how it could have been.
Atonement reached immediately a great success: in 2001 it was shortlisted for the Book Prize for fiction, in 2002 it won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for fiction, the National Book Critics Circle Award, the WH Smith Literary Award and the Time named it best novel of the year. In 2007 a film adaptation of the novel was released: the film was directed by Joe Wright and starred Keira Knightley, James McAvoy and Saoirse