Expiación

It is the hottest day of the summer, 1935, and in the Tallis family home everything appears to be peaceful. However, a more attentive ear might notice subtle discordant tones, a rising tension. It explodes when Cecilia, the oldest Tallis daughter, emerges from a fountain soaked to her skin wearing only her underclothes, while Robbie, the much loved and brilliant son of the family's maid, watches her. A prodigious book full of surprises, it is both a romantic story of impossible love and a brutal tale of war. It is Ian McEwan's masterpiece.