Atonement is a 2001 novel by British author Ian McEwan. On a summer day in 1935, young Briony Tallis witnesses a monent’s flirtation between her older sister, Cecilia. and Robbie Turner, the son of a servant. But Briony’s misunderstanding of adult motives and her precocious imagination bring about a crime that will change all their lives, a crime whose repercussions Atonement follows through the chaos and carnage of World War II and into the close of the 20th century.