Ten of the best birthday parties in literature

At the Guardian, John Mullan named ten of the best birthday parties in literature.

One entry on the list:

Atonement, by Ian McEwan

In the surprising coda to this novel, most of which is set in the 1930s and 1940s, some of the characters meet again in 1999 to celebrate Briony Tallis's 77th birthday. The play she wrote as a child in the first chapter will at last be performed. But Briony knows that she is dying, and has to tell us the truth about those events long ago.

Read about the other entries on the list.

Atonement also appears on Jane Ciabattari's list of five masterpieces of fiction that also worked as films, and on John Mullan's lists of ten of the best misdirected messages in literature, ten of the best scenes on London Underground, ten of the best breakages in literature, ten of the best weddings in literature, and ten of the best identical twins in fiction. It is one of Stephanie Beacham's six best books.

Also see: Ten of the best birthday poems.

--Marshal Zeringue