Un Long Dimanche De Fiancailles Sebastien Japrisot

In January 1917, five wounded French soldiers, their hands bound behind them,

are brought to the front at Picardy by their own troops, forced into the no-

man's land between the French and German armies, and left to die in the cross

fire. Their brutal punishment has been hushed up for more than two years when

Mathilde Donnay, unable to walk since childhood, begins a relentless quest to

find out whether her fiancé, officially "killed in the line of duty," might

still be alive. Tipped off by a letter from a dying soldier, the shrewd,

sardonic, and wonderfully imaginative Mathilde scours the country for

information about the men. As she carries her search to its end, an elaborate

web of deception and coincidence emerges, and Mathilde comes to an

understanding of the horrors, and the acts of kindness, brought about by war.

A runaway bestseller in France and the winner of the 1991 Prix Interallié,

this astonishing novel is many things at once: an absorbing mystery, a playful

study of the different ways one story can be told, a moving and incisive

portrait of life in France during and after the First World War, and a love

story of transforming power and beauty.