A Very Long Engagement by Japrisot

Phew. I am very glad that I read this, but I am also glad that it is over. On one hand there are fantastic characters, an interesting setting, a mystery, history, and beautiful writing. On the other hand there are A LOT of characters and the mystery sometimes purposely moves you in false directions. This would probably be a great book to really delve into on vacation or something. I read it in pieces and often got distracted, which I think hurt my reading experience of it. I would recommend it to readers who don't mind layers, complexity and are willing to work for a beautifully written story in the end. Also a movie with that chick from Amelie.

After a court martial in January 1917, five Frenchmen convicted of self-mutilation (in order to avoid combat in WW I) are dragged along the network of zigzagging trenches to the improbably named frontline trench, "Bingo Crepuscule." What exactly happened in Bingo is as labyrinthine as the trenches themselves, but Mathilde Donnay, the fiancee of one of the soldiers, is a determined young woman whose wheelchair is unable to contain her fiercely independent and willful spirit.