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Atonement by Ian McEwan Pages 1 - 20

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(Brought to you by jat impatientreader.com) Atonement starts off with a young girl named Briony, who has just written a play that she wants to perform with her young cousins who are coming to live with her after their parents get divorced. The scene talks about how Briony has prepared for this play for weeks now ever since she heard her cousins were coming to stay with her. 

She shows the play to her mother, Mrs. Tallis, who praises her extravagantly. The plays and stories she writes all seem to be about her older brother Leon, and they all involve him falling in love and getting married later on in life. The scene describes how her room is very tidy, and that her life is very ordered and filled with the trappings of keeping secrets, even though she realizes she is too young and sheltered to really have many. Her family has realized that Briony is very precocious and extremely smart, especially when it comes to writing.

Her cousins Lola and twins Jackson and Pierrot come from her mother's younger sister Hermione, whom Briony hears her mother criticize from time to time.  When the family comes into the house, Briony is eager to get them started on rehearsals for her brother's homecoming play, but there are a variety of other things to do first, and it isn't until later that Briony gets to introduce her play to all three of them. The boys are reluctant. Lola will only do the starring role in the play, which Briony envisioned going to herself. However, Lola lays a guilt trip on her about the divorce, and Briony gives in.
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