Atonement

Perfectly paced, finely written, and psychologically brilliant, Atonement is Ian McEwan's Rashomon-like tale of love, family, and betrayal in WWII-era England. When a young, over-imaginative girl witnesses a series of events that she lacks the context to understand, she levels a terrifying accusation at her sister's lover that will have unalterable and far-reaching consequences. McEwan casts a compassionate yet unwavering eye on his characters, revealing the lapses in perspective that can make human beings believe they are in the right while doing so much wrong. It's the revelatory nature of those shifts in perspective that make this book so great; as each member of the extended Tallis family helps to craft the disaster that Briony will spend her life attempting to atone for—and even later, as the narrative shifts to the war itself, alternating between the front and the hospitals—the individual worldviews of each character overlap and conflict with each other in alarming and enlightening ways. Atonement is a gorgeous book, sure, but it's more than that—it's an exploration of human truth, an honest look at what it means to be a writer, and a many-layered love story.