Synopses & Reviews
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.
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"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. Finally, giving it all an intent energy, it is a hybrid of the detective story and the classical quest." ---Richard Eder, Los Angeles Book Review
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.