Engagement

Gun-Britt Sundström

With sales of over 60,000 copies since the relaunch, Engagement is a masterful modern classic that is ever-relevant and ever-fascinating.

What is it to be a couple? What responsibilities can one presume, and what can you ask from each other? Time? Sex? Faithfulness? Is it different if one marries? Can you live together if you have differing ideals for how a relationship should be?

These are the types of questions that Martina and Gustav discuss with each other, and others, as they try to break the mould and make their relationship work. They give up and leave each other, but always seem to come back to one another. Again and again.

The novel takes place in Stockholm during the 60’s and 70’s, a time of change when the nuclear family is questioned, and perhaps on its way out. Still, our heroine discovers how difficult it can be to be without a ”husband” when everyone around you is creating their own families and coupling up.

Engagement was first published in 1976, and has been re-discovered by recent generations who can take solace in its modern themes and thinking. For the reader of Rachel Cusk or anyone who has recently fallen in love with Lucia Berlin, Gun-Britt Sundström’s Engagement is still as, or possibly even more, relevant than when it was first published. Many recognize themselves in this unromantic love story—crying and laughing equally with the couple.