“No one stays in a trance forever, true, but no one, shaken awake, lives on without feeling a void inside. A trance is a displacement. A trance is a wound.”
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“I have not met a child who is not lopsided in some way. And when children grow up, they become lopsided adults.”
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This is a fictional memoir of a girl who grew up in the French countryside, Agnès, and her childhood best friend Fabienne. They had a very intense relationship, the kind that often happens in childhood and swallows up your whole world. For a long time they needed only each other. Fabienne wrote a book but had it published under Agnès’ name, catapulting her into instant fame. Soon, Agnès was travelling to Paris and enrolled in a posh finishing school in London. She was miserable there and gave it all up to go back home, only to end up estranged from Fabienne.

From the get-go we learn that Agnès ended up marrying an American and migrating, and that Fabienne had recently died in childbirth. Agnès recounts the life they shared together, and even though she never explicitly says it, we get the sense that her narrative is in essence one long love letter memorialising Fabienne, the true love of her life, and all the time they shared together.

My personal interpretation is that they are queer coded. Both Agnès and Fabienne reject marriage and childbirth even as they are well aware that it is expected of them. Agnès is utterly devoted to Fabienne and there’s evidence Fabienne reciprocates in her own way even if Agnès cannot see it. All we see or hear of Fabienne is filtered through Agnès’ flawed subjectivity, but it becomes apparent that Fabienne had wished for a different outcome too. They had a closeness of relationship unlike no other, but unfortunately there was no way for them to conceive of a practical future together.

When Agnès goes to school in London, Fabienne fabricates an imaginary older brother to act as a long-distance boyfriend for her to write letters to, Jacques. Unlike Fabienne, he is very loving towards Agnès, who is able to love the character only because she knows Fabienne is behind it. Through the persona of Jacques, they sustain a quasi-romantic fantasy where they can break out of their familiar childhood dynamic and attempt to become more for each other. We get the sense that Fabienne was actually truly invested in it when she questions Agnès, “Why did you love him when you could’ve loved me? What does he have that I don’t, other than he’s a boy and I’m a girl?” In hindsight, Agnès retorts that she had loved Fabienne all her life, but in that moment she was unable to reply. For Fabienne, this was further proof of Agnès eventual abandonment of her, and so she severs their bond early to spare them both the pain.

In the last few moments that they had before their relationship changed irrevocably, Agnès naively wants to hold onto the dream that they can still run away and live together forever, never marrying and never letting another person into their closed-off bubble. Fabienne tells her that it is pointless: “That won’t make us feel real, don’t you see? . . . In a year or two, you will change, and you will want me to change with you . . . Can’t you see that we’ve already lived past the best time of our lives?” At fifteen and on the cusp of adulthood, they come to the realisation that all the make-believe they played in the past were to make them feel real, but “game-real” will always lose out to “life-real”.

Overall, I give this read 4 stars. It’s dense and the style won’t be to everyone’s liking (think Ali Smith) but I found it to be immersive and rewarding in a painfully bittersweet way.

The Book of Goose is an astute novel of childhood friendship. I grew up as the Agnés to someone else’s Fabienne (without the subsequent rise to fame!), and I’ve never seen a writer capture that toxic co-dependency so perfectly. These are realistic young protagonists, shaped by boredom, cruelty and self-awareness, with an aimless sense of ambition driving the plot.

The narrative peters out slightly towards the end, and I’d have liked to have seen more of Agnés’ life post-Fabienne, but I suppose it was never meant to be Agnés’ story.

It may be a different kind of Yiyun Li novel, but The Book of Goose is very much the work of an accomplished novelist.

"Of all the people in the world, how many of them, looking into their own conscience, can say with unwavering certainty that they have never betrayed someone in their lives-ten, five, none? If so, why do we often make a fuss about betrayal? So many movies and books, so many broken marriages and torn friendships. The knives we stick into one another's backs-perhaps those knives have their own wills. They take a grand tour, finding a hand here and a back there. We cannot blame the hands, just as we cannot sympathise with the backs. They are equally recruited for the knives' entertainment. The world is never short of knives".

Yiyun Li never fails to deliver something new that becomes all-consuming and totally unique, whilst weaving in her no-nonsense, blunt and somewhat morbid look at reality, taking away the facade of innocence and sweetness so many of us lace into situations as denial is often easier than the truth.

The book follows older Agnes, reflecting on when she was a young peasant from a remote village in France, who writes a book with her close friend Fabienne. They, almost inexplicably, managed to publish the book with the support of an elderly widow, and due to enhanced levels of public interest - perhaps due to the writing but also perhaps due to a peasant challenging the expected norms - and is plucked out of obscurity to join an English finishing school.

I adored the exploration of reliance on others, on losing ourselves to the hopes and perceptions we place on those we love, and the ultimate hurt that comes when life inevitably sends us on different paths. How much control do we really have over our actions? I couldn't say. But I enjoyed Yiyun Li's inspection into the various ways we let others, and ourselves down, in our ultimate pursuit for more.

It's also rare to see the love in a friendship scrutinised so closely, in such depth. I really enjoyed this, as the love between friends remains a wildly under-explored concept despite something so many of us can relate to, and the physical grave dug to highlight the death and passing of a friendship presented a powerful image into how much this really hurts.

Everything ends - a book, a situation, a friendship, a life.

Thank you to NetGalley for the Arc.

Fabienne is dead. Her childhood best friend, Agnès, receives the news in America, far from the French countryside where the two girls were raised – the place that Fabienne helped Agnès escape ten years ago. Now, Agnès is free to tell her story.

As children in a backwater town, they’d built a private world, invisible to everyone but themselves – until Fabienne hatched the plan that would change everything, launching Agnès on an epic trajectory through fame, fortune, and terrible loss.

A magnificent, beguiling tale winding from the rural provinces to Paris, from an English boarding school, to the quiet Pennsylvania home where Agnès can live without her past, The Book of Goose is a story of disturbing intimacy and obsession, of exploitation and strength of will, by the celebrated author Yiyun Li.

Wonderful… It gripped me from the first page until the last. The characters are so amazing… This story kept me glued all the way through…

Yiyun Li writes a character driven, coming of age piece of historical fiction that captivates in its subtly nuanced exploration of a friendship, set in Saint Remy in post-war rural France with all its constraints, social norms and expectations, financial struggles and poverty. Agnes Moreau is in her late twenties, childless, married to Earl, now living in America, learns of the death in childbirth of the only person she has ever opened her heart to, Fabienne, there was simply no love or attachment to her family or anyone else. As she is flooded with memories, she opens up, on Fabienne, their friendship, she only came alive in her presence, how they were one and the creation of their private world, invisible to everyone but themselves, where they continually test themselves physically and psychologically. Fabienne, with her strong streak of cruelty and a crystal for a heart, never explains, expects Agnes to follow her and do nothing else, Agnes complies.

Fabienne plays games, her latest will change everything between them, she has Agnes write up her macabre collection of stories of death, primarily of babies and children, animals and some adults, brutal and savage. These stories are shaped fit for publication by widower and postmaster M. Devaux, with Fabienne intending to use his knowledge and life experience for her next book. Fabienne insists that Agnes fronts up as the author, pushing her to go to Paris when the book takes off with great media interest in the 'peasant' schoolgirl author. It leads to Agnes attending British Surrey Finishing School, Woodsway, run by the ambitious and controlling Mrs Antonia Townsend, aka Kazumi, with her plans of ridding her of the 'peasant' background, educating and polishing her beyond recognition. Agnes, comfortable fitting in with others, but soon begins to feel like a 'trespasser in paradise.'

Agnes is forced to confront the revelations that she and Fabienne are not one, they are not the same apples or oranges, Fabienne is the blade, she is the whetstone, and she finally understands their separation is inevitable. Fabienne, with her extreme exaltations and despair at a world that refuses to accommodate her, has little interest in either fame or fortune, writes a book that intends to make them visible to the world, yet it is notable for their complete absence. This is a beautifully written story with its symbolism of geese, disturbing and unsettling, of a historical period, of a complex friendship, obsession, class, art, love and loss that is likely to appeal to many readers. Many thanks to the publisher for an ARC.

This is the first Yiyun Lee book I’ve read and I very much doubt it will be my last. The writing is contained and quietly beautiful. It is a story of an intense teenage friendship between two girls and coming of age in postwar France, exploring issues of class, social expectations, imagination and creativity.

The book is narrated by Agnes, now married and in her twenties, looking back at her teenage years of boredom, daily farm work, poverty and escape from it all through her close, even obsessive friendship with Fabienne. She tells us at the start that Fabienne has died in childbirth so her narrative is also an elegy, a memorial of sorts to their friendship, lost youth and dreams. I thought the narrative less compelling in the second half when the girls were separated and kept asking how Fabienne would have felt, I found her elusive, present only in fragments of letters she wrote to Agnes. Perhaps this was deliberate and overall, the book is quite beautiful.

My thanks to Fourth Estate and Netgalley for the opportunity to read The Book of Goose.

Beautifully and delicately written, evocative of place and time. Unusual and interesting dynamic between the main characters. Enjoyed this.

An unusual book, written in exquisite prose, about the intense relationship between two girls from impoverished backgrounds, in post-war rural France. Told in the voice of Agnes, the girl who is the receptacle for dramatic and controlling Fabienne’s fantasies, we discover that together they write a novel. Agnes, with her good penmanship writes down the gruesome stories that Fabienne relays to her. The widowed postman is hauled into their net and appears to both help them with their first novel, at the same time exploiting them (and they him). He is dispatched and after the book is published to great acclaim, Agnes is sent to a finishing school in London by the hungry publisher. To avoid spoilers, I won’t give away more of the story, but for me, the London section and indeed the finale was flat and unsatisfying compared with the opening section. But definitely worth reading for the writing and for the insights into the hopefully rare and almost ‘Munchausen syndrome by proxy’ type of relationship that a small number of adolescents embrace!

This is my first novel by Yiyun Li and having heard great things I was excited to read this. For the first 20% I just couldn’t muster much enthusiasm for the characters and felt the “Fabienne is horrible to me and I let her” storyline was very repetitious. I wanted to shake some sense into Agnes but when she went to Paris and wrote her own paragraph for the publisher I finally began to respect her. From then on I was more committed to the narrative and found I was seeking out chances to read rather than the previous day’s reluctance to read.
I still haven’t changed my opinion on Fabienne but I grew to love Agnès and with Li’s writing. Words are used sparingly but still describe the scenes perfectly. Lines are written to have impact but without any loud noises, just sudden “OH!” moments where you realise just how beautiful the story and the prose are. The rest of the book slid down like a cold drink on a warm summers afternoon and I was sad to realise I was at 98% and it was nearly all over.
I will definitely be seeking out more of Yiyun Li’s books and reading them.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers, Fourth Estate for this ARC.

I have not read Yiyun Li before but have heard lots of good things about this author and therefore very pleased to have this opportunity to read the latest book.

Although the style of writing is quite beautiful I feel that this book does not bring anything new. The themes explored here have been done numerous times and brings nothing to ruminate. Sorry to say that I was disappointed.

“It did not matter that I could not catch up with her. I lived through her. What was left behind was only my shell.”

A touching historical fiction novel about class, art, and female friendship. We follow Agnès and Fabienne in Saint Remy in postwar rural France. Two girls who isolate themselves from a world that doesn’t understand them. They escape into a world they have built for themselves- writing stories as a game; taking revenge on the world. Their existentialist philosophy and outlook on life that leaves you thinking of Camus.

The novel starts with Agnès receiving word of Fabienne’s death, and what follows is a critical reflection on their time together ten years ago. From rural France, to England and America, Agnès recounts their time together - the exploitation of their craft, their art, their games, their obsessive friendship and their love.

An enjoyable read, each page as intoxicating as the next - I couldn’t put it down!

A captivating book with beautiful prose. I really enjoyed the story and the narrator — Agnes' humor and narration was what truly got me immersed in the book, especially at the start during their childhood. However, there were some parts that didn't really interest me that much, such as when Fabienne and Agnes got seperated. I don't think the intensity and obsession that comes with their friendship was that well-done then. If it wasn't for how much I liked Agnes' voice and because I liked the writing I would have knocked down another star further. Overall, it was still an enjoyable read despite my issues with it.

I have to confess to mixed feelings about this book: the first third drew me in to the point that I almost missed my tube stop! The childhood and adolescence of the two girls in post-war rural France is done very well, as is the writing of the book for which Agnes is feted as a child prodigy.

But the switch to an English school and the separation of Agnes and Fabienne dialed down the intensity that had captured me and it never really came back. It's also hard when a key character is already dead before the book starts and so we never meet them directly, just see them via another person's memories and story.

For all the intention behind the narrative, I could never find this wholly convincing: it felt too much as if I was always seeing the ideological skeleton upon which the story is hung and so this never got back to working as a piece of engaging fiction for me. In fact, one of the most moving scenes is when Agnes is with her brother, Jean, returned, broken, from a German POW camp - and a minor piece within the overall picture.

There's nothing flashy about the style, it's quiet and a bit remorseless in a positive way. I'm glad I've read this for a variation on the theme of obsessive friendship and power, with an overlay of class and social expectations. A subtle exploration - but one not wholly satisfying for me.

I would like to thank's Netgalley as well as 4th Estate for providing me with a free Arc for this book!
I couldn't stop thinking how this would make the perfect book for book clubs, hear me out: it's got a good length, it's a page turner and yet it's an intensely reflective story. It touches upon many subjects, the act of creation, the class system but perhaps more importantly the intensity of young female friendship. There is so much to discuss in this hyper realistic historical fiction.
I especially loved the character work as they are all so well fleshed out. Agnès and Fabienne especially of course, and the way their closeness pervades the story. They would climb inside each other's skin if they could and yet they couldn't be more different. They have the type of friendship that truly helps to shape you, the kind you always remember even years after it's ended. It was truly touching to witness.

If you like slices of life and coming of age stories I would really recommend "The book of Goose", it has superb writing and allow me to add, as a french woman myself, I was pleasantly surprised by the super accurate french vibe. If I didn't know better, I could easily be fooled into thinking this was written by a french person.

I've been a fan of Yiyun Li since her first appearances in Newyorker and Paris Review. She is such a talent and one is always in awe of her. This is a compelling story and one you can hardly put it down. the book is about Agnès and Fabienne, and their world of friendship. I got goosebumps readint this.

Agnès and Fabienne are best friends, who together write a novel which becomes a best seller. It sounds a simple premise, but from this Yiyun Li crafts a truly spellbinding novel that explores themes of friendship, art, obsession, fame, fortune and its tragedies.

It is a slight novel in physical size - I gulped it down in one sitting - but its depths contain multitudes. It is a hard novel to discuss in terms of plot without giving away much of its richness, but what I will say is that Li has sculpted on these pages two extraordinary girls whose lives intertwine with explosive consequences.

The writing is exquisitely poised, with not a word out of place, and there is such richness here that a second reading will be as rewarding as the first. I cannot wait to swim back in.

Thank you to the publishers and Netgalley for the ARC.