Engagement
Published on 3. July 2025
Book
Paperback/Softback
512 pages
978-0-241-68812-0 (ISBN)
Description
A feminist cult classic about love, independence and what it means to be an individual, translated into English for the first time
'I want to have him, I really do. I just don't want him to have me.'
Martina and Gustav, students in 1970s Stockholm, meet and fall immediately into coupledom. But what is coupledom? A route to marriage? A declaration of co-dependency? A new dimension of commitment and responsibility? A sexual confrontation? Or is it a habit that an intelligent person must consider breaking? Martina and Gustav discuss their relationship endlessly, between themselves and with others, as they try to make it work.
Engagement, set during a time of social change and political upheaval, sees Martina trying to engage with the world on her own terms. Unwilling to marry, she finds herself in a state of permanent engagement while her friends settle down to marriage and children; uncertain of the world's future, she engages with demos, sit-ins and philosophy seminars in her quest for a new blueprint for joy. First published in 1976, when it was heralded as an instant classic, Engagement remains as relevant, hilarious and heartbreaking today.
'I want to have him, I really do. I just don't want him to have me.'
Martina and Gustav, students in 1970s Stockholm, meet and fall immediately into coupledom. But what is coupledom? A route to marriage? A declaration of co-dependency? A new dimension of commitment and responsibility? A sexual confrontation? Or is it a habit that an intelligent person must consider breaking? Martina and Gustav discuss their relationship endlessly, between themselves and with others, as they try to make it work.
Engagement, set during a time of social change and political upheaval, sees Martina trying to engage with the world on her own terms. Unwilling to marry, she finds herself in a state of permanent engagement while her friends settle down to marriage and children; uncertain of the world's future, she engages with demos, sit-ins and philosophy seminars in her quest for a new blueprint for joy. First published in 1976, when it was heralded as an instant classic, Engagement remains as relevant, hilarious and heartbreaking today.
Reviews / Votes
Effortlessly contemporary, even refreshing... Aside from writerly skill and timely resonance, part of why Engagement feels so immediate is that its strident politics are married to an eternal, universal central conceit: people not being able to love another as they want to be loved * Financial Times * A novel from which you never really recover -- Victor Malm * Expressen * Honest, self-searching, endearingly puzzled at every development, Martina is a pleasure to be with - for us, if not for Gustav. Her voice is brisk, conversational, contingent - we could almost imagine her unpacking the shopping as she explains herself * TLS *More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Penguin Books Ltd
Product notice
Paperback (UK-trade)
Dimensions
Height: 216 mm
Width: 137 mm
Thickness: 35 mm
Weight
473 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-241-68812-0 (9780241688120)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Persons
Gun-Britt Sundstroem (Author)
Gun-Britt Sundstroem (b.1945) works as an author, critic and translator. She is the author of sixteen books, including Engagement (1976). Since the 1990s, Gun-Britt Sundstroem has established herself as one of Sweden's foremost translators of children's books and fiction. She received the Helga Prize in 2019 for her 'linguistic sensitivity, self-distance, black humour and acuity'.
Kathy Saranpa (Translator)
Kathy Saranpa (b.1955) is a literary translator living in Germany. Her first book-length translation was Ingrid and Joachim Wall's A Silenced Voice (2020). She serves on the Committee of the Translators Association of the Society of Authors and on the advisory board of Books from Sweden.
Gun-Britt Sundstroem (b.1945) works as an author, critic and translator. She is the author of sixteen books, including Engagement (1976). Since the 1990s, Gun-Britt Sundstroem has established herself as one of Sweden's foremost translators of children's books and fiction. She received the Helga Prize in 2019 for her 'linguistic sensitivity, self-distance, black humour and acuity'.
Kathy Saranpa (Translator)
Kathy Saranpa (b.1955) is a literary translator living in Germany. Her first book-length translation was Ingrid and Joachim Wall's A Silenced Voice (2020). She serves on the Committee of the Translators Association of the Society of Authors and on the advisory board of Books from Sweden.