A Very Long Engagement

I just finished A Very Long Engagement by Sebastien Japrisot. The book was a big hit in France and I can see why. It's part history, part love story and part mystery. The main character, Mathilde, loses her fiancée, Manech, in World War I. After receiving a letter from someone who new him, she is determined to find out what really happened. She is such a great character -- plucky, inventive and tenacious. The book was made into a movie but I almost hate to see it. I don't think that it can live up to the book.

The writer does an excellent job of revealing the story slowly. Along the way you get pieces of the past, the true story of what happened to Manech, and an assortment of vividly drawn characters. The writer describes the war's senselessness just enough. Instead of being repulsed by a graphic description of violence, you're instead chilled to the bone by the senselessness of the war. It was fascinating to read a contemporary book that shows how World War I remains in the French psyche.