The Atonement Child is a 1997 novel by the American author

Author

An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...

 Francine Rivers

Francine Rivers

Francine Sandra Rivers is an American author of fiction with Christian themes, including inspirational romance novels. Prior to becoming a born-again Christian in 1986, Rivers wrote historical romance novels...

. It deals with the themes of unwanted pregnancy

Pregnancy

Pregnancy refers to the fertilization and development of one or more offspring, known as a fetus or embryo, in a woman's uterus. In a pregnancy, there can be multiple gestations, as in the case of twins or triplets...

 and abortion

Abortion

Abortion is defined as the termination of pregnancy by the removal or expulsion from the uterus of a fetus or embryo prior to viability. An abortion can occur spontaneously, in which case it is usually called a miscarriage, or it can be purposely induced...

.

Plot introduction

Dynah is a young Christian college girl at a bible college when rape shatters her life, and then the resulting pregnancy may shatter her faith. As her pro-life fiance suddenly finds abortion acceptable, and her pro-life school informs her that she will be expelled unless her pregnancy disappears, she is forced to wonder about their views of the World and what God has said in the Bible and of her own former pro-life views. At home she finds her family torn apart as her mother admits to an abortion before she had Dynah that made her incapable of having children for several years, and her grandmother admits to an abortion that was forced on her for "health reasons". Dynah is eventually driven to isolate herself so that she can make the decision on her own. As her mother's "Atonement Child", Dynah must come to the decision on whether or not to have her own "Atonement Child".