ATONEMENT

Booker Prize-winning author Ian McEwan begins this story in 1935 at a manor house in England. The play within the novel is written by 13-year-old Briony Tallis and rehearsed in the nursery with a cast made largely of little cousins. The play will not be a success, but the girl’s gift for melodrama leads her into an erotic fiction with truly dreadful consequences. These resonate against a darkening world. The retreat to Dunkirk and the hospital scenes afterward are superb. Jill Tanner gives a magnificent performance. With perfect diction, she takes us from childish enthusiasm through despair and into wise resignation. Sometimes funny, sometimes not funny, but always English. B.H.C. 2003 Audie Award Finalist © AudioFile 2002, Portland, Maine [Published: AUG/SEP 02]