A runaway bestseller in France and winner of the 1991 Prix Interallié, Sébastien Japrisot's novel about World War I was acclaimed as "a latter day War and Peace" by The New York Times. Set during and after the Great War, A Very Long Engagement tells the story of a young woman's 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 Engagement is a mystery, a love story, and an extraordinary portrait of life in France before and after the War.
Five soldiers reportedly killed in action in the last days of WWI were actually victims of a horrific miscarriage of military justice. Mathilde Donnay's fiancé, Manech, was one of those soldiers. Two years after the war, a dying officer suggests a different story, and she embarks on a search for the truth. In spite of confinement to a wheelchair, Mathilde persistently follows all leads to find the truth. Isabel Keating's narration is engrossing, painting a picture of war in all its humanity, in-humanity, and horror. This is not an audiobook you can multitask with; keeping the details straight will require all your attention . . . but it's worth the effort. N.E.M. (c) AudioFile 2005, Portland, Maine
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.
