Engagement is a perfect summer read. It meanders gloriously and the reader is able to soak up and revel in the challenges faced, and created by, Martina. The reader becomes as enclosed in her world as she herself is. There is an enjoyable tension between the unreliability of the narrator and the narrator's own awareness of this.
This translation is excellent. The translator's note illustrates how careful the consideration of choices has been. Clever devices have been included to ensure the emphasis created by the use of English in the original hasn't been lost in translation.
The story is moving, the struggles which seem so personal and crushing to the protagonist are still pertinent today. Issues of love, how love should look, feel, and manifest are timeless. Particularly moving for modern readers will be the struggles to figure out what to do with ones life.

Gun-Britt Sundström's 'Engagement' is an enthralling journey into contemporary love, freedom, and the dynamics of relationships amidst the landscape of 1970s Stockholm. The novel revolves around Martina and Gustav, whose passionate relationship is never far from being disrupted by Martina's strong need for independence.

Martina struggles with the traditional notion of "coupledom," questioning if marriage and homemaking mean sacrificing her self. She desires Gustav but strongly maintains her autonomy, and a familiar push-and-pull pattern occurs throughout their relationship. The writer skillfully conveys their interminable talks and changing deals, mirroring the cultural changes of the period when traditional roles were under review.

Aside from the primary romantic conflict, the novel explores Martina's wider engagement with the world; her education, profession, and activism. It's a bittersweet and frequently comic examination of the battle to create a career that is in accord with personal principle in a world that is still primarily organized on traditional lines. 'Engagement' is as relevant today as when it was written, providing an open and unromantic account of love that will find empathy with modern readers struggling with the same issues of identity and commitment.

Engagement is an in-depth look at a relationship from one woman's point of view.

Martina is an independently-minded woman who reluctantly begins a relationship with Gustav at a time when they are both students in 1970s Sweden. At first Martina balks against them being a "couple" and continues to see other people. As their relationship develops she realises Gustav is a jealous boyfriend but she almost revels in not being faithful to him.

As the years pass the pair live together for short periods then split up. Martina refers to them as married even though no formal ceremony ever takes place. She falls in love with Gustav's family's summer cabin but finds Gustav's personality quite clingy.

I'd like to tell you that the narrative develops over the 500 pages but what actually happens is that the pattern continues to repeat itself throughout the book: they become a couple, one or both have an affair, they split up, one or both of them stops their affair, they get back together.

I honestly thought that something other than 450 pages of navel-gazing would occur, but it didn't. Martina is a thoroughly unlikeable character who wants to be wanted, doesn't want to be tied down, wants a relationship, doesn't want to stay faithful, wants her partner to be free but is affronted when they are unfaithful. She really got on my nerves with her constant whining and double standards.

This book would probably appeal to anyone who likes deeply introspective novels that have no obvious storyline. I'm afraid that, even though it's considered a classic, it wasn't to my taste. I would have dumped Martina after about a week.

Thankyou to Netgalley and Allen Lane, Particularly, Pelican, Penguin Classics for the advance review copy.

This feels a very modern book in many ways despite being set in Sweden in the mid 1970s. It focuses on the relationship between Martina and Gustav, who meet as students and begin a long relationship which moves through many phases but which don't involve marriage. Told entirely from Martina's point of view it's an exploration of commitment in relationships, love and what different people need and want from a partner. The sexual politics of the 70s and the emerging women's movement of second wave feminism play a part here, though aren't a key area in the novel.

It's been a cult classic in Sweden for many years and has only just been translated into English. Nonetheless it doesn't feel like a period piece but is for me overlong - maybe to show the circular and repetitive nature of lasting relationships. I did enjoy reading it and thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for a review copy.

This is a magnificent novel, telling the story of a young woman in 70's Stockholm who is determined to live an autonomous life, on her own terms and by her own principles. She struggles with coupledom, although loving deeply. Gustav is her 'husband' through choice, but not legally, and this, over the years that pass, drives an insurmountable wedge between them. They try polyamory, with various degrees of success, but basically they are two people looking for a very different type of commitment. By turns humorous and achingly sad, we identify with Martina while sometimes wanting to shout in frustration at her. I loved this book, which although written about 50 years ago, feels as current and important now, when so many people are reacting against the institution of marriage.

This 1970s Swedish book has now been translated into English and the translator does a great job given that the characters are studying English and sometimes speak in English.
I did find this overly long and repetitive which I expect is part of the point about their relationship cycle but I did find it hard to be drawn in by it. Interesting from a historical point of view though and always glad to read translated classics.

A very long slog through Existential Unease, Love, Work and Purpose

For sure I would have raised my star rating had this weighty crawl through the angsty, sometimes amusing, picking apart of the pointlessness of it all, the repeated same old same old search for that point, been a good deal shorter than the 512 pages of Martina’s 8+ years going round in circles in 1970’s Sweden.

Martina and Gustav are students when they meet. Both left leaning, and in character and conversation, much accord between them. Gustav loves Martina much more that she loves him, and has a much higher sex drive. For Gustav, Martina is the one, and he wants marriage. She loves him most when he isn’t there, and thinks there much be much more meaning to life than marriage and motherhood. Unfortunately, though, she isn’t really sure what that meaning might be. Work, for example – if only she knew what a purposeful and enjoyable occupation might be. Really, she wants to be an endless student to avoid the necessity for work. There is much reading and discussion of Kierkegaard. And much discussion of the types of people attracted to left wing politics. Not so much of the politics themselves. And even more discussion around open relationships. It being the time it is, and the place it is, there is also a lot of seriously engaged in and cerebrally analysed infidelity. Any reader who is averse to graphic descriptions of sex need have no fear of this book. It is only the concept of sexual connections which come under the microscope here.

Okay, the very quotidian pointlessness and sometimes desperation of it all is certainly mirrored in the length of the tome, and the round and round repetition of Martina and Gustav’s incompatibilities were of course wearisome to the protagonists. But a shorter book might have led to this reader at least having more of a sense of engagement (!) Curiously, despite the endless philosophical debates about the various relationships – platonic and romantic, I had little sense, with this book, of feeling I was meeting ‘real’ people. Concepts pegged on to invented characters a plenty.

Brilliantly translated, this is an insightful and authentic exploration of relationships which - despite having originally been published back in the 1970s - feels incredibly modern. Powerful in its frankness and introspection, Engagement delves into the eternal clash between human behaviour and cultural expectations.

Engagement by Gun-Britt Sundström (translated from the Swedish by Kathy Saranpa); originally published in 1976 and described as a cult classic, Engagement follows Martina as she navigates and tries to subvert the expected norms for someone of her gender and sexual orientation. A student in 1970s Stockholm, during a time of social and political change, Martina meets Gustav and they fall into coupledom. The majority of the novel is Martina railing against the inevitable as she sees her friends and almost everyone she knows - from those engaged in education with big lofty ideas to those who attend political rallies and demos - gets married and has kids. I thought Martina was a brilliant character; the novel is told entirely from her point of view and she can be sometimes hilarious, other times infuriating. However, I found the novel just a tad long and there was a lot of emphasis on the relationship between Martina and Gustav rather than this alternative/new blueprint for joy that is talked about in the blurb. I can see, though, that the questions Martina grapples with are still as relevant today as they were 50 years ago! Thanks @penguinukbooks for the review copy.

A hefty tome, relationships and the back and forth of love. Food for thought from another era, although fundamentally people remain the same.

sometimes books are so good and so eekish because of how brilliant they are at being just distant enough but also hitting so close to the bone sometimes.
i just wanted t scream stop looking, stop searching, stop sending yourself crazy! it shouldn't be this hard to be a we or an i. it will never be easy or something you can perfect or structure. and still the questions asked or the things covered you can still hard relate to or are things you've had raftered around your own conversations or thoughts. you want this book to stop so you don't feel you have to ask them either haha.
Martina was so compelling. and i wanted her to just be enough. just be. go with the flow. you don't need to answer the questions you think others are asking of you to be accepted by them or even yourself.
her story shows us how we cant do anything and sometimes can. how some things will and wont be. how there is no black and white and also no in between. how some humans have blueprints to behavior but then can switch on a knife blade which proves nothing is true at all! you see. this book had me doing a Martina.
but now it was a brilliant book and i loved it. but needed to breathe during and after. its like an Instagram experience where you open a tab, which directs you here, shows you there and questions you there. and rabbit wholes is where you are. but i don't want to compare it to social media because that will belittle its brilliance.
yes a snaffled up this book. top scored across the board.

since the book is a translation from the Swedish written in the 70's. There are moments where I could not connect to but overall its a beautifully translated book where the efforts of keeping the essence of the book can be seen.

Originally written in 1976, Engagement could easily have been written today as the author analyses the relationship between Martina and Gustav. Martina struggles to maintain her independence whilst committing to a relationship and fears losing herself and her freedom.

A well paced and written novel, I enjoyed Martina's attempts to work through her feelings, questioning whether they are authentically hers or pressure from cultural expectations. This expands also to her studies and work. At times, I found both characters frustrating as they struggle to compromise and answer to each other as well as meeting each others expectations. However, theirs is a relationship also based on love and a loyalty of sorts and made for fascinating reading.

Thanks to NetGalley, Penguin Press UK – Allen Lane, Particular, Pelican, Penguin Classics | Penguin Classics for the ARC.

Engagement

Martina has strong views about marriage. It isn’t going to happen to her. She sees herself as meant to be eternally alone.
Gustav however would like them to become more than just on off lovers, stumbling through other affairs, returning to each other but never actually committing.
Engagement is the story of their love affair over several years; as they break up, make up and go through an annual ‘divorce’. It was written in the 1970’s, one of the most turbulent decades for social change. People were questioning everything; marriage, women’s roles, the current state of politics and who does the washing up. Martina thrives on this as she continually studies for a doctorate and takes boring jobs for money in between.
Gustav, in contrast, is more focussed and organised. When they first meet, he is training to be a teacher and, after graduation, will start his career. He is more determined to establish himself in life. They're an intellectual couple and send messages to each other in the form of Biblical verses.

But, as their affair continues over the years, their friends settle down, raise families, move to other countries but they seem to be content to stay in their ritual dance as they circle each other. Or so Martina thinks.

This is a book that could easily have been written today as its themes were so universal and relevant and we are in times of unrest. It’s told in the first person from Martina’s POV and she did get on my nerves sometimes as she was so dogmatic in her world view. However, she was opinionated and stuck up for herself. She cited Jean Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir as role models in that their relationship was an open one. Gustav considers ‘a packet of disposable toothbrushes’ to be symbolic of his and Martina’s relationship and he cheats on Martina with Barbro because ‘it was so fun to be with a woman who thought of me as a sex object.’ The ending is sad and poignant as control is finally taken from Martina.
Infuriating at times and honest, Engagement is a truthful, frank depiction of relationships and the minefield that they bring with them. No wonder it’s a classic.
My thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for an ARC.

G: “I love you.”
M: “That’s not my fault”

Engagement (UK Release July 3) is set in Stockholm in the ’60s and ’70s and follows Martina and Gustav through a relationship that dodges tidy labels. Built on mismatched expectations, awkward honesty, and well-prepared meals, theirs is a bond of affection and bafflement. Martina, particularly, is dry, wry, restless—constantly weighing what she’s prepared to offer against what she’s determined not to lose. Gustav, bemused, flounders, and they pursue their connection around some dark and oblique angles trying to find happiness while not losing each other.

I was completely taken with this—its tone, its shape, its sly reluctance to resolve. Martina’s narration is so sharp and funny, quietly barbed and memorable. Her firm sense of self crackles from the page as she and Gustav throw the great philosophers at each other in their attempts to navigate new modes of life and loving.

Themes—freedom, loneliness, compromise, the erosion (or quiet toughening) of connection—accrue gently, all written with a keen eye for everyday absurdity and awkwardness.

Some readers might find it overlong or repetitive—the characters acknowledge the weary inevitability of their rhythms—but for me that was part of the point. It reflects the slow depletion, the looping negotiations, how years slip through your fingers while you’re trying to settle things, the stakes changing with each new rotation.

A large part of this book’s complete success lies in Kathy Saranpa’s translation—supple, absorbing, and entirely convincing. Though it is a vintage Swedish original rendered in modern English, it retains a distinct idiomatic character that ensures Martina and Gustav remain firmly rooted in their own time and place. There’s no sense they’ve been smoothed into a default 21st Century Englishness; their rhythms and sensibilities are intact and are even more engaging and appealing for it.

A unique and fascinating gem.

Our narrator, Martina, guides us through seven years of her life. She holds nothing back. She is brutally honest about her life, loves, thoughts, and feelings.
She questions societal expectations on women and laments the demands that love and relationships put upon a person's independence.

Martina and Gustav's relationship is a stormy sea. Their highs and lows impact others whose lives intermingle with theirs. Can they learn how to compromise? Or, will one of them demand that the other gives up their hopes, dreams and goals, to fit in with their lover's ideas for the future?

Originally published in Swedish in 1976, Engagement is as relevant today as it was then. Very little seems to have changed in society when it comes to women valuing their individuality and independence. Men gaslighting their partner and holding them responsible for every problem that arises in their relationship is a tale as old as time. Yet, Gun-Britt Sundström manages to hold the reader's attention for 500 plus pages as she bares Martina's heart and soul for us all to see.

I loved Engagement! I was captivated by Martina and her passion for life. Is she flawed? Of course she is, she is human, and she is navigating this thing called life without a road map... I laughed, cried and sulked with her. I raged, stared at the wall wondering at the cruelty of this world and mourned with her in her darkest moments.

Thank you #penguinbooks #Netgalley for providing me with an advance reader copy. I cannot wait to purchase a paperback copy, so that I can reread, get lost again in Martina's story and fill the pages with tabs, highlighting all my favourite parts.

This novel is written from the perspective of Martina, a young woman in her twenties living in Sweden and her relationship with another student called Gustav. The novel truly immerses you in their relationship - their connection and wants all whilst you're getting a sense of the atmosphere of Sweden in the 70s, which is also when this book was originally published. I really felt the buzz of student life and the politics at the time and a few contextualising footnotes really helped with this!

Sundström's depiction of this relationship felt very authentic to me - its messiness but also its share of beautiful moments. You follow these characters come to terms with personal needs and the working world of adults post university. Martina also strongly grapples with societal expectations related to marriage and family life in a way that still felt incredibly and surprisingly relevant to me. Sundström’s words land in such an honest and raw way in this translation, which made this one a page turner for me overall.

I recommend this book if you enjoy reading about relationship dynamics and books that query societal expectations. I think fans of Tove Ditlevsen's and Torborg Nedreaas' writing will adore this one!

This book was first published in Sweden in 1976 and became a feminist classic. This is the first translation available in English.

The story is about the relationship, the ‘engagement’, between Martina and Gustav who meet as students and go on to live a life of on and off coupledom. The narrator is Martina. Gustav anticipates a future with marriage and children but Martina struggles, fretting about a possible loss of independence.

That is the major theme and preoccupation of the novel, and the question of how an independent woman can both continue to be independent and married to a man. Even when the man is as liberal and generous as Gustav is, Martina fears losing her freedom, being owned and accountable to another person, and having to compromise over everything from love-making and menus to in-laws!

As the novel develops, it is clear that Martina finds it difficult to be more than ‘engaged’ to anything let alone Gustav. Martina has similar problems in relation to her studies, employment, and politics! This is a long book and it is quite easy to lose patience with Martina who wants to have Gustav but will not allow him to have her! All of this leads to complications in how they operate together, emotionally and practically. Sometimes, there is a sense of repetition!

It isn’t a feminist classic in the sense of being a strong statement in favour of female independence but its strength lies in the exploration of what it means to be a woman at a time of gender equality. It’s a good read and will make you think.

Totally understand why this became a classic. From 1976 (the 'long, hot summer' in the UK), this novel is definitely a classic. A rumination on human behaviour, especially that relating to 'coupling', Sundstrom examines the insecurities that lead us into relationships, even though we may not fully understand why, or even want to be. This is no love story, and there is, quite rightly, no resolution. It's philosophy masquerading as fiction -- and I say that in a good way because the questions that are asked are both fascinating and unanswerable. I loved it. Highly recommended, and many thanks to NetGalley and to the publisher for the ARC.

Ok, I’m not sure how I’d never heard of this book before because what a trip.

This is a bit of a misery fest but it’s such a good read and interesting insight on relationships and marriage.