A Very Long Engagement

“The Long Engagement” is an enthralling detective novel by Sébastien Japrisot about the power of love and the horror of war. France, World War I. Five French soldiers are sentenced to punishment worse than death: on the night of January 7, 1917, they are thrown onto no-man’s land with their hands tied behind their backs, directly in front of the enemy trench—handing the execution over to the Germans. All five are self-shooters who wounded themselves in an attempt to get leave. Among them is Manek, a boy who isn’t yet twenty. At home, Manek is waiting for the same-young fiancée Matilde, who has been tied to a wheelchair since childhood. The war ends, but Matilde’s fiancé never returns from the front. And when, in a terse obituary notice, it says he was “killed by the enemy,” Matilde decides to find out the truth—because hope still warms her heart that her fiancé is alive. What she is about to learn will turn her life upside down once and for all. The novel was adapted into a film by Jean-Pierre Jeunet; Audrey Tautou played Matilde in the film of the same name.