Ian McEwan · 2001 · overland

Ian McEwan's 2001 novel. On a hot day in 1935 at a country house in Surrey, thirteen-year-old Briony Tallis tells a lie that destroys two lives, sending Robbie Turner first to prison and then to the war. The story follows him through the harrowing British retreat to Dunkirk and Briony into a London hospital, as she spends a lifetime trying to atone. The route runs from an English country house to the beaches of Dunkirk and back to London.

1. 1
   The Tallis House

   On a sweltering summer day in 1935, at the Tallis family's house in Surrey, a child's misreading of a moment between her sister Cecilia and Robbie Turner leads to a false accusation that shatters them all.

2. 2
   Portsmouth

   Robbie embarks with the BEF from the south coast.

3. 3
   Cherbourg

   The crossing to Normandy and the war in France.

4. 4
   Dunkirk

   Years later the war has taken Robbie to France, and he joins the exhausted, hunted British retreat across the north toward the beaches of Dunkirk and the hope of evacuation.

5. 5
   Dover

   Off the beaches of Dunkirk and across the Channel to Dover.

6. 6
   London

   In London, Briony works as a trainee nurse amid the wounded, and begins the long and perhaps impossible task of atoning for the lie that defined three lives.