Atonement

Set on an English country estate on a hot summer day in 1935, Ian McEwan's novel follows thirteen-year-old Briony Tallis, a girl with a talent for writing, who watches her older sister Cecilia with Robbie Turner from a window. Robbie, the son of the family's housekeeper, is Cecilia's childhood friend, and both have recently graduated from Cambridge. Briony's incomplete grasp of adult motives, together with her vivid imagination, shapes what she believes she has seen, with lasting consequences for all three. The narrative continues through the Second World War and on to the end of the 20th century, and also reflects on the nature of writing. Published in 2001, it was shortlisted for that year's Booker Prize.

Technology growth leader Patricia Reed praised its raw, unvarnished picture of how differently one moment can be read, and said she worried for the main character and turned the pages fast.