Atonement

　　Ian McEwan's symphonic novel of love and war, childhood and class, guilt and forgiveness combines all the satisfaction of a superb narrative with the provocation we have come to expect from this master of English prose.
　　On a summer day in 1935, thirteen-year-old Briony Tallis witnesses the firtation between her older sister, Cecilia, and Robbie Turner, the son of a servant. Bu... (展开全部) 　　Ian McEwan's symphonic novel of love and war, childhood and class, guilt and forgiveness combines all the satisfaction of a superb narrative with the provocation we have come to expect from this master of English prose.
　　On a summer day in 1935, thirteen-year-old Briony Tallis witnesses the firtation between her older sister, Cecilia, and Robbie Turner, the son of a servant. But Briony's incomplete grasp 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 twentieth century.　　

　　在当今英国文坛，写严肃小说又好又叫座的，当数伊恩·麦克尤恩，他也被认为是英国文坛当前最具影响力的作家之一。麦克尤恩的作品多为短篇小说，内容大都离奇古怪、荒诞不经，有“黑色喜剧”之称。他的文字简洁而且优雅，他对人的生存状态的洞察和深挖使他笔下经常是“不洁”的题材具有真正的人性深度。自他的第一本短篇小说集《最初的爱情和最后的仪式》获得1975年的毛姆奖以来，他四次获得布克奖提名，并最终在1998年以《阿姆斯特丹》折桂。《赎罪》同样获得2001年的布克奖提名，虽然最终未能获奖，但评论却给予了较之《阿姆斯特丹》更多更动听的溢美之词，认为比它更丰满，更好读，既有讨好读者的动人情节，喜剧因素，又不乏冷色调，让人爱不释手。2007年，麦克尤恩凭借《切瑟尔海滩上》再次入围英国布克奖。