Why read A Very Long Engagement?

Book cover of A Very Long Engagement

Book description

In 1919, Mathilde Donnay, a young wheelchair-bound woman in France, begins a quest to find out if her fianc , supposedly killed in the line of duty two years earlier, might still be alive. Reprint. 50,000 first printing. (A Warner Bros. Independent Pictures film, releasing Fall 2004, directed by Jean-Pierre…

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Historical fiction

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Why read it?

2 authors picked A Very Long Engagement as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Martha Conway

Author

Unable to walk since childhood, Mathilde Donnay never lets her limitations get in her way. She is on the search for her fiancé who was reported killed in the Great War, but whom she believes might still be alive. Mathilde is feisty, caring, strategic, and driven—all things I’d like to be.

From Martha's list on The best historical novels with kick-ass female leads.

Adam Hochschild

Author

A haunting novel about the experience in this war of France—which suffered by far the highest casualties of any of the Western Allies, not to mention the devastation of a wide swath of its territory, where some of the worst fighting took place.

From Adam's list on The best books on the human impact of World War I.