Summary № 6

Briony in 1999 on her 77th Birthday as she is about to make her “last visit” to the Imperial War Museum library in Lambeth. She has received “dozens of letters” from Colonel Nettle to help her tell her story, of which he will donate to the library, but she is losing her mind and  can't remember any parts of her life.She was married to a man named Thierry, who died fifteen years ago. Then Briony goes to Tilney Hotel for the event.Briony is a well-accomplished writer and that her books are being studied in high schools across England.A group of the younger relatives (mostly Quinceys) appear on a mock-stage and begin a performance of "The Tales of Arabella." Briony is shocked and pleased.She decided to publish her last and most important novel - the only one real crime of wartime Britain – Lola’s, Marshall’s, her own. But she has to wait until all the characters are dead before publication so she can avoid the risk of being sued for libel for not changing names, something she refuses to do as part of her “atonement.”Cecilia died shortly thereafter in a London bombing. The letters between Robbie and Cecilia, the "two lovers," are now in the archives of the war museum and not her possession.Brione's explanation is that she did not think the reader would want to believe that they never met again, lived together again, and loved again.
Brione couldn't find atonement for God, for her sister and,certainly for Robbie.