IShortlisted for the 2001 Booker Prize, McEwan’s masterful examination of memory and imagination begins at a Tallis family gathering at their country estate, where youngest daughter Briony recruits her cousins ​​for a play. It’s a sweltering summer in 1935, and 13-year-old Briony, who has a keen interest in drama, is upset when the others don’t share her enthusiasm for acting.

Then, from her bedroom window, she witnesses a disturbing scene. Her sister Cecilia and Robbie, the son of the Tallis’ cleaning lady, are having a heated conversation by the fountain in the garden, whereupon Cecilia strips down to her underwear and submerges herself under water for a few seconds. Later that day, Robbie asks Bryony to deliver a letter to Cecilia in which he confesses his desire in no uncertain terms. Briony reads it and concludes that Robbie must be an evil person, which leads her to tell a lie that will have disastrous consequences.

This new recording of Atonement is superbly performed by Succession actress Harriet Walter, who also played Mrs. Tallis in Joe Wright’s film adaptation. Her lively RP tones are well suited to this portrait of an upper-class family where dysfunction and desire simmer beneath the surface. The second part of the novel shifts to 1940, where the adult Briony, now aware of the nuances of that fateful day, is wracked with remorse for her actions. Here McEwan pulls off a daring narrative trick that makes the listener question the foundations of his storytelling and the nature of fiction.

Available via Penguin Audio, 13 hrs. 38 minutes

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