The Book of Goose by Yiyun Li

The Book of Goose by Yiyun Li

This is a book about the deep psychological and emotional bond between two young girls, best friends in war ravaged 1950’s St Remy. Fabienne and Agnes, making the world real with make believe games, have a devastating yet true relationship. Fabienne is a realist beyond her years while Agnes remains hopeful, this novel explores the love and betrayal that form female friendships. The author engages the reader with a local plot while illuminating the universal, that the world makes up stories about all of us. This novel was my introduction to Yiyun Li and am eager to read her earlier work.

About The Book of Goose:

A magnificent, beguiling tale winding from the postwar rural provinces to Paris, from an English boarding school to the quiet Pennsylvania home where a woman 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.

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 war-ravaged 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.

Read more of Jeannie’s Reviews on her blog, on Goodreads or StoryGraph, or on the New York Journal of Books. For more TBR inspiration, check out Jeannie’s curated book lists at Bookshop.org.