Atonement Page #6

I think. I had to.

And why, of course, it's my last novel.

Strangely enough,

it would be just as accurate

to call it my first novel.

I wrote several drafts as far back as my time

at St Thomas' Hospital during the War.

I just couldn't ever find the way to do it.

MAN:
Because the novel is autobiographical,

is that right?

Yes, entirely. I haven't changed any names,

including my own.

And was that the problem?

No.

I had, for a very long time,

decided to tell the absolute truth.

No rhymes, no embellishments.

And I think...

You've read the book,

you'll understand why.

I got first-hand accounts of all the events

I didn't personally witness,

the conditions in prison,

the evacuation to Dunkirk, everything.

But the effect of all this honesty

was rather pitiless.

You see, I couldn't any longer imagine

what purpose would be served by it.

By what? Sorry. Served by honesty?

By honesty.

Or reality.

Because, in fact,

I was too much of a coward

to go and see my sister in June, 1940.

I never made that journey to Balham.

ROBBIE:
Do you have any idea

what it's like in jail?

BRIONY:
So the scene in which

I confess to them is imagined.

CECILIA:
He sleeps so deeply.

BRIONY:
Invented.

ROBBIE:
How old do you have to be to know

the difference between right and wrong?

BRIONY:
And, in fact,

could never have happened.

Because

Robbie Turner died of septicaemia

at Bray-Dunes

on June the first, 1940,

the last day of the evacuation.

Cheerio, pal.

And I was never able to put things right

with my sister, Cecilia,

because she was killed

on the 15th of October, 1940,

by the bomb that destroyed the gas

and water mains above Balham tube station.

So...

My sister and Robbie were never able

to have the time together

they both so longed for, and deserved.

And which, ever since, I've...

Ever since I've always felt I prevented.

But what sense of hope,

or satisfaction, could a reader derive

from an ending like that?

So, in the book, I wanted to give Robbie

and Cecilia what they lost out on in life.

I'd like to think

this isn't weakness or evasion,

but a final act of kindness.

I gave them their happiness.

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