Synopses & Reviews
Now a major motion picture from Amelies director Jean-Pierre Jeunet and featuring Audrey Tautou and Jodie Foster comes a very different love story: A Very Long Engagement based on the acclaimed novel by Sébastien JaprisotA runaway bestseller in France and winner of the 1991 Prix Interallié, Sébastien Japrisots novel about World War I was acclaimed as “a latter-day War and Peace” by The New York Times.
Set during and after the First World War, A VERY LONG ENGAGEMENT is the tale of a young womans search for her fiancé who she believes might still be alive despite having officially been reported as “killed in the line of duty.” Unable to walk since childhood, fearless Mathilde Donnay is undeterred in her quest as she scours the country for information about five wounded French soldiers who were brutally abandoned by their own troops. A VERY LONG ENGAGEMENTis a mystery, a love story, and an extraordinary portrait of life in France before and after the War.
Review
"A classic mystery....Only the best historical fiction can make the journey into a distant time and return with a believable sense of how things really were. This novel does it." Paul Watkins, Washington Post Book World
Review
"Riveting....A fierce, elliptical novel that's both a gripping psychological thriller and highly moving meditation on the emotional consequence of war." Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times
Review
"[A] kind of latter-day War and Peace....This is a book that is many things: a war story, a story of official corruption, an idyll of young summer love, and a rich and most original panorama of French men and women living in peace and robbed of it." San Francisco Chronicle Book Review
Review
"Magical....Japrisot has a narrative style that reminds one of Flaubert....A powerhouse novel with an unforgettable character at its core." Boston Globe
Review
Japrisot's eloquently easy, almost offhand style makes even throwaway lines remarkable, and his re-creation of the nobility, futility and horror of trench warfare is harshly beautiful." Publishers Weekly
Review
"As tricky as Japrisot's earlier bestsellers in his native France but also precisely, surprisingly evocative of the lingering pain of mourning and the burdens of survival." Kirkus Reviews
Review
"Diabolically clever...the reader is alternately impressed, beguiled, frightened, bewildered....A considerable achievement." Anita Brookner, The Spectator
Synopsis
A runaway bestseller in France when it was first published ten years ago, this irresistible novel set during the aftermath of World War I is reissued to coincide with the film adaptation by Jean-Pierre Jeunet (Amelie, City of Lost Children), starring Audrey Tautou (Amelie, Dirty Pretty Things).
Synopsis
"Riveting...A fierce, elliptical novel that's both a gripping psychological thriller and highly moving meditation on the emotional consequence of war."
-- The New York Times
In January 1917, five wounded French soldiers, hands bound before them, are brought to the front at Picardy by their own troops, forced to climb from the trenches onto the narrow strip of no-man's-land that separates the French and German armies, and left to die in the crossfire.
Their brutal punishment has been kept secret for over two years when Mathilde Donnay, a young, wheelchair-bound woman from a small town in the South, begins a relentless quest to find out whether her fiance, officially "killed in the line of duty," might still be alive.
The fiercely independent and determined Mathilde combs the country for information about the other four soldiers:
*A farmer from the Dordogne
*A former carpenter
*A Parisian trade unionist
*A street hustler from Marseilles
As she uncovers more about their lives, an elaborate web of deception and coincidence emerges. Struggling against all reason and counsel, Mathilde carries her search to its end, and in discovering what happened to each of the five men, Mathilde also begins to understand the horrors-and the acts of kindness-brought about by war.
A runaway bestseller, the winner of the Prix Interallie prize, and a major motion picture, A Very Long Engagement is an engrossing mystery, a playful study of the different ways one story is told, and a moving and incisive portrait of life in France during and after the First World War.
Praise for A Very Long Engagement:
"A kind of latter-day War and Peace...This is a book that is many things: a war story, a story of official corruption, an idyll of young summer love, and a rich and most original panorama of French men and women living in peace and robbed of it."
--Richard Eder, Los Angeles Book Review
Synopsis
Two years after the World War I has ended, the fiancé of a French soldier reported "killed in the line of duty" decides to investigate his death, suspecting he may still be alive. Winner of the 1991 Prix Interallié when it was published in France.
Synopsis
Set during and after the First World War, A Very Long Engagement tells the story of a young woman's search for her fiancé, whom she believes might still be alive despite having officially been reported as "killed in the line of duty." Unable to walk since childhood, fearless Mathilde Donnay is undeterred in her quest as she scours the country for information about five wounded French soldiers who were brutally abandoned by their own troops. A Very Long Engagement is a mystery, a love story, and an extraordinary portrait of life in France before and after the War.
Synopsis
Set during and after the First World War,
A Very Long Engagement tells the story of a young woman's search for her fiancé, whom she believes might still be alive despite having officially been reported as "killed in the line of duty." Unable to walk since childhood, fearless Mathilde Donnay is undeterred in her quest as she scours the country for information about five wounded French soldiers who were brutally abandoned by their own troops.
A Very Long Engagement is a mystery, a love story, and an extraordinary portrait of life in France before and after the War.
Synopsis
Now a major motion picture from Amelies director Jean-Pierre Jeunet and featuring Audrey Tautou and Jodie Foster comes a very different love story: A Very Long Engagement based on the acclaimed novel by Sébastien JaprisotA runaway bestseller in France and winner of the 1991 Prix Interallié, Sébastien Japrisots novel about World War I was acclaimed as “a latter-day War and Peace” by The New York Times.
Set during and after the First World War, A VERY LONG ENGAGEMENT is the tale of a young womans search for her fiancé who she believes might still be alive despite having officially been reported as “killed in the line of duty.” Unable to walk since childhood, fearless Mathilde Donnay is undeterred in her quest as she scours the country for information about five wounded French soldiers who were brutally abandoned by their own troops. A VERY LONG ENGAGEMENTis a mystery, a love story, and an extraordinary portrait of life in France before and after the War.
About the Author
Sébastien Japrisot was the pen name of Jean Baptiste Rossi. He wrote seven novels, including One Deadly Summer, The Sleeping Car Murders, The Passion of Women, and The Lady in the Car with Glasses and a Gun.