Engagement
Sweden

Engagement

by Gun-Britt Sundström

Love & Passion Classics Fiction 2025

Summary

Martina and Gustav are university students in 1970s Stockholm when they meet and fall in love. Their relationship quickly becomes an ongoing negotiation over what it means to be a couple: how much time lovers owe each other, whether fidelity is essential, and whether commitment must eventually lead to marriage. Gustav dreams of building a conventional life together, while Martina fears that marriage and domestic expectations will undermine her independence. Over the years, they separate and reunite, repeatedly drawn back to one another despite their incompatible ideas about love. Meanwhile, Martina observes friends settling down, participates in political demonstrations, and explores philosophical ideas in search of a life that feels genuinely her own. With sharp wit, intellectual curiosity and emotional honesty, Sundström challenges romantic conventions without offering easy answers. Both a love story and a feminist examination of personal freedom, Engagement asks whether two people can remain devoted to each other without sacrificing their individuality.

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Country
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Europe
About the author
Gun-Britt Sundström
Gun-Britt Sundström

Gun-Britt Sundström is a Swedish novelist, literary critic and translator, born in 1945. She made her literary debut in 1966 and has published sixteen books, including fiction for adults and children. Her writing is celebrated for its linguistic precision, sharp social observation, self-deprecating humour and willingness to question conventional expectations. Sundström is best known internationally for Engagement, originally published in Swedish as Maken in 1976. The novel became a modern Swedish classic for its frank exploration of romantic relationships, marriage and women’s independence. Through its protagonist, Martina, Sundström examines the tension between the desire for intimacy and the need to remain free to shape one’s own life. Since the 1990s, Sundström has also established herself as one of Sweden’s leading translators of children’s literature and fiction. In 2019, she received the Helga Prize in recognition of her linguistic sensitivity, humour and literary acuity. The first English translation of Engagement, translated by Kathy Saranpa, appeared in 2025, introducing a new generation of international readers to her work.

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Details
Published
2025
Author
Gun-Britt Sundström