The quintessence of life in atonement

When I was seven I buried an unknown man under the weight of my own lies and announced his funeral. It was unintentionally – in my salad days I heard from an adult in school corridors that some teachers had gone for somebody's funeral and there would be no lessons, so I told it to my classmates. It happened to be a lie – and I was the one to spread it.

How often do we bury strangers in the worlds of surrounding people? And how often does our incompetence lead to disastrous consequences?

While reading McEwan's novel I went back to my childhood and remembered that incident, still blushing with regret in my memory. It is considered that the more often we remember a moment, the more our memory changes it and deceives us. But what if someone deliberately alters memories for good, in the name of ... Atonement ?

The first page - thefirst step towards new reality. A deep breath. Wide-opened eyes. Summer wind blows through the opened window

and touches a childish skin of mine. Briony Tallis – here it is, my new name in this story.

The reader finds himself in a world seen through the eyes of a young writer, the eyes of the artist and, at the same time, a deeply sensible character, thanks to whom you can immerse yourself in the story from the first lines.

But the plot appeared to be not that easy and we suddenly get a chance to observe the narration from at least three different perspectives and from different angles; through strands of auburn hair or even childish sky-blue eyes; we hear dialogues intertwined with songs of birds, rapid heartbeat or artillery impacts.

The uniqueness of the characters made my glance pass over the lines with caution, so that I wouldn’t know beforehand under whose skin we got – I wanted to sense each phrase, resonate with each of the characters and hear, – without further ado, – sweet and bitter reminiscence, belonging to familiar person. I wanted to feel the taste of the novelty of the story.