This novel works on several levels: as an account of class and society in pre-war England, and as one of adolescent development, it is perceptive and revealing. The second half contains scrupulously researched and moving descriptions of the British evacuation from Dunkirk in 1940 and of the training of wartime nurses. Some of Briony's experiences with her traumatized patients would make thought-provoking scenarios for considering the relationship between health professional and patient in the aberrant circumstances of war.

But the most absorbing and disturbing aspect of Atonement is what it adds to McEwan's ongoing exploration of the problem of knowing other minds, and the role of imagining, narrating, and story-telling in our efforts to apprehend reality and escape isolation.

Atonement can be defined as “meta-fiction”, a novel focused on the creative power of novelists who can freely shift points of view and offer subjective, unreliable truths.

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