In Ian McEwan's Atonement, a young girl with a fanciful imagination witnesses an interaction she doesn't understand, and because of her lack of experience and unaware of her own ulterior motives, she spends the rest of her life trying to rewrite the consequences of the events she sets into motion. To say more would ruin your own journey in Atonement. This is a masterfully-written story with an ending that is fully supported by the events that lead to it. Perhaps this is too abrupt a reaction to be called a review, but it is too hard to comment on the complexity of psychology with the hint of fairy tale without saying too much.

I did not know that a movie had been made of this book; I did not know that this book had already received much (well-deserved) acclaim. I had read a couple of books by Ian McEwan, and while they were good, I wasn't moved. When I finished reading the novel on a recent Saturday morning with nothing planned for the day, I was grateful for the silence and the lack of needing to be anywhere; I needed a little time to soak in the comprehension of the girl, now an old woman, and her quest for absolution.