A Very Long Engagement (Paperback)

~ (Author), Linda Coverdale (Translator) "Once upon a time, there were five French soldiers who had gone off to war, because that's the way of the world..." (more)
Key Phrases: watch out for the wire, mahogany box, Little Louis, Benjamin Gordes, Tina Lombardi (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

January 1917: five French soldiers are marched to their own front lines where they will be tossed out into no man's land with their hands tied behind their backs and left for the Germans to shoot. They were, in civilian life, variously a pimp, a mechanic, a farmer, a carpenter, and a fisherman; now they are condemned because each had sought to leave the war by shooting himself in the hand. Taken to a godforsaken trench nicknamed Bingo Crépuscule, the five are reluctantly sent out into the darkness; days later, five bodies are recovered and the families are notified, merely, that the men died in the line of duty.

August 1919: Mathilde Donnay receives a letter from a dying man. In it, the former soldier tells her that he met her beloved fiancé, the fisherman Manech, shortly before he died. Mathilde goes to meet Sergeant Daniel Esperanza at his hospital and there hears the story of the execution. She also receives a package with a photograph of the men and copies of their last letters. As Mathilde reads and rereads the letters and goes over Esperanza's tale, she begins to suspect that perhaps the story didn't end quite so neatly. And so begins her very long investigation into the mysterious circumstances surrounding the deaths of five condemned prisoners--one of whom, at least, might not really be dead.

In Mathilde Donnay, Sebastien Japrisot has created one of the most compelling and delightful heroines in modern fiction. Though confined to a wheelchair since childhood, "Mathilde has other lives, varied and quite beautiful ones." She paints, cares for her pets, enjoys a rich fantasy life, and is relentless in her search for the truth about Manech's death. But she is by no means the only vibrant personality leaping off Japrisot's pages. This author has a remarkable ability to draw even minor characters in three dimensions with economy and wit. Take Mathilde's mother, for instance, caught in mid-card game: "At bridge, manille, bezique, Mama is a dirty rotten swine. Not only is she an ace with the pasteboards, but she throws her opponents off their mettle by insulting or making fun of them." And even the characters we meet only through other people's memories--the condemned men--are so fully realized that you find yourself torn over which one you hope may have survived. As Mathilde comes ever closer to solving the mystery of what happened at Bingo Crépuscule that January morning in 1917, Sebastien Japrisot proves himself a master storyteller and A Very Long Engagement a near perfect novel. --Alix Wilber

From Publishers Weekly

In 1917, a crippled young French woman searches for her fiance who was left to die on the front lines of WWI.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 336 pages
• Publisher: Plume (September 1, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0452272971
• ISBN-13: 978-0452272972
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.3 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.1 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (80 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #884,892 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

51 of 52 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars riveting, December 2, 1999

By A Customer

Wow! I just finished this book after reading it every spare minute for the last 2 days. I did not want to put it down. The beginning of this novel is probably the best introduction to a group of characters that I have ever read. Not only for its character development but for the rhythm of the language. A spectacular achievement considering this is translated from the original French.

This is a love story and an intriguing mystery as well as an indictment of the carnage of WWI. And in the midst of the climax of the story, the author gives further detail to a minor character (Mathilde's mother cancelling the cheese course) that had me laughing out loud. How did he know that I needed a break in the tension?

This is a well told story that had me enthralled from beginning to end, deepened my definition of love, taught me more about WWI (Pat Barker's trilogy is fabulous for this also, and just as fascinating) and caused me to appreciate again the privilege of reading great literature and all the benefits truly great books bring to life.

A must read.

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Well worth the time...., September 17, 2000

By	William A. Owen (St. Leon, Indiana United States) - See all my reviews

I confess that I feel just a bit stingy in offering only four stars to this book, because I cannot identify a single area in which it is lacking. Japrisot's story is both moving and entertaining, the characters are richly developed and easy to care about, and the events described seem completely credible.

I guess I find myself comparing it to books like ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT and A FAREWELL TO ARMS, which is, of course, grossly unfair. For one thing, it could reasonably be argued that those books are among the best written in the twentieth century, and how fair is it to judge every new novel on its ability to measure up favorably to such a standard? Secondly, although ENGAGEMENT is about the First World War, it is more accurately read as mystery/love story.

My favorite thing about this novel is the way in which Japrisot offers the reader an opportunity to form quick intitial judgements about many of the characters, and then slowly provides the reader a deeper understanding of these individuals and their motives as the book progresses. I found that, by the end of the book, I liked almost everyone involved in this story. Perhaps not a "great" book, but certainly a very good one - and a damned sight better than most of what has proven to be publishable/marketable over the last fifteen to twenty years.

23 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Superb, January 14, 2004

By	Elizabeth Hendry (New Jersey USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

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A Very Long Engagement is a magical book, one which weaves a tale and catches you in its spell--it will haunt you long after you put it down. The novel begins as five condemned French soldiers walk to their doom during World War I. They have all shot themselves, trying to get out of fighting and as punishment, will be thrown into the no-man's-land between the French trenches and the German trenches. Their families know nothing of this and after they die, are told them men died honorably. A few years later, Mathilde, the fiance of one of the men discovers some of the truth about what happened and she becomes convinced that her fiance has did not die--or at least did not die as she was told. She tries, doggedly, to uncover the truth. Along the way, she discovers many atrocities of that war. The novel pulls you along to its rather unexpected, yet still deeply satisfying ending, pulls you so much you won't be able to put this one down. The power of love, the strength of friendship, the failure of memory--all these come into play in this outstanding novel. I highly recommend this novel to all devoted readers. It's a bit of a challenge, following all the little clues Matilde gets, putting the truth together and tossing out the lies, but it's worth it. Enjoy.