My second Yiyun Li, and I much preferred it to their previous publication, Must I Go?

There are two girls at the center of the story, set in rural France: Agnes and her closest friend Fabienne.
The Book of Goose, written by the grown-up Agnes, stems from her eventual knowledge that a story must be written out or how else do we get our revenge on a soul-crushing reality? I could easily read this book all over again with careful attention to its nuances. In the meantime, I can say that this is a book that shouldn’t be missed

The Book of Goose
by Yiyum Li

I received a complimentary copy and am voluntarily leaving a review.

Agnès and Fabienne, two budding teenage girls and best friends, live in a small village in rural France. To observers, Agnès is the quieter girl of the two, while Fabienne is more forthright, generally regarded as coarse or rebellious. Whatever others assumed, their relationship worked, identifying themselves as unique compared to the rest of the world, like two peas in a pod or two halves making a whole.

Playing one of their games, the girls compose a book with the guidance of their local postmaster. Agnès rises to fame, is plucked out of poverty, sent to Paris and later to a finishing school for debutantes in the UK. Leaving her former life behind, Agnès accomplishes what they expect of her, performing like a circus animal and keeping in touch with Fabienne by correspondence. But she ultimately tires of her new life, unsure of the future, feeling overwhelmingly out of place and experiencing the loss of her childhood companion.
Agnès returns home, expecting to pick up from when she left, but sadly they both quickly acknowledge that it is not possible. Time apart has marked them both.

This is the first book I have read by Yiyum Li and definitely not my last. The Book of Goose is written from the pov of Agnès when adult and residing in America. It is startlingly shocking, intriguing and poignant; an intimate memoir of friendship in a time when children had far more freedom.
It is one of those works that lingers after you finish the last page, and one that you contemplate the why’s and what if’s long after the book is closed.

Thank you to NetGalley, 4th Estate and William Collins for allowing me the opportunity to read and complete a review.

The Book of Goose is a dark, deeply affecting story of intense female connection, told as a retrospective by Agnès after she learns of the death of her brilliant childhood friend Fabienne. From the safe distance of Agnès’ new life in America, we discover that the two girls grew up in poverty together in rural France, spinning extravagant fantasy worlds as a means of escapism. Aged 13, they’re both obsessed with each other – or at least, Agnès is obsessed with Fabienne – spending most of their time together, despite the disapproval of Agnès’ parents. One afternoon, the girls concoct a bizarre plan to befriend the village’s recently widowed postmaster: the need for a reason to speak with him leads them to decide to write a book together and ask for his help. The resulting collection of macabre tales of village life is drawn from the girls’ memories and imaginations. Published under Agnès’ name, it’s an unexpected success, transforming her into a child prodigy. Soon, she’s whisked away to Paris to meet the press – but can she keep up the illusion without her friend and, more importantly, does she want to? Dotted with observations on the duality of friendship, and how the most meaningful connections hold the potential to hurt the most, this is a thought-provoking and gripping read.

My first Yiyun Li novel, this is an unusual and unsettling tale of the unorthodox childhood friendship between two girls, the narrator Agnes Moreau and Fabienne, who grew up together in a small village in rural France post World War Two. Agnes is looking back on their friendship many years later, and there is a palpable sense of nostalgia and sadness throughout the book.

Fabienne is a spiky, charismatic type, strongly reminiscent of Ferrante's Lila from the Neapolitan Quartet, while Agnes is her malleable, admiring friend who does her bidding. Bored and unoccupied, Fabienne hatches a plan whereby they will write a book together and enlist the help of the local postmaster to get it published. When the book is published and Agnes attracts fame as a child prodigy author, life changes dramatically for her but in doing so, she loses Fabienne as her anchor,

This was a somewhat strange and compelling tale. It reads almost like a fantasy, and with the wild imaginations the girls had, as a reader I was left wondering if I had been hoodwinked just as many of the characters in the book were. Could this really be the life Agnes led? Many of the characters were fantastical and curious. There are definite parallels with Ferrante's work but this has a different, dream-like quality to it. I enjoyed it and will read more of Yiyun Li's work on the back of it. 3.5/5 stars

“My name is Agnes, but that is not important. You can go into an orchard with a list of names and write them on the oranges, Françoise and Pierre and Diane
and Louis, but what difference does it make?” Starts Yiyun Li’s latest book.

This is a book within a book about a book written by two childhood best friends. One writes the book, the other puts her name to it and takes the credit. The poetic prose gives clues to the plot and ideas of the story all the way through the book, so a careful slow reading is necessary. This book is a beautiful exploration of friendship, growing up, and the ties of childhood that bind.

This was such a good story and the friendship between Agnes and Fabienne was fascinating. I found the plot really thought provoking and I enjoyed following the characters story.

The Book of Goose is the story about a deep friendship between two adolescent girls growing up in rural France. One is dead and the other starts writing down their shared past.

It's a shame, but it just didn't work for me. I had expected something special based on the glowing reviews but I found the style unremarkable and the plot increasingly tedious. I found myself easily distracted. The main issue I had has little to do with the writing: I found the main characters highly unsympathetic. That is often not a problem, but in this case there is also very little humour and overall the atmosphere is quite bleak and ominous.

Another problem for me is that I kept comparing it to Elena Ferrante's L'Amica Geniale and the similarities are indeed striking: two girls, whereby the girl telling the story is the studious girl good at writing (Lenù) but having nothing of the raw talent and fierce character of her enviable best friend (Lila). And Naples being my favourite city, the French countryside was no match in terms of atmosphere either...

A beautiful novel about the innocence, and cruelties, of friendship in post-war France. This book has some of the sharpest and well-drawn characters I’ve read in a long time and the descriptions of the girls’ life in Saint-Remy are so vivid, you can almost smell and taste the stench in the air. I also found the plot to be both surprising and thought-provoking. A wonderful book; I loved it. Will be seeking out more novels from Yiyun Li in the future.

Will add my review to Amazon, thanks for giving me the opportunity to read!

Beginning with Fabienne’s death in childbirth the majority of the story is a flashback to Agnes and Fabienne’s girlhood in France.

Growing up in post World War Two France, Agnes and Fabienne are the closest of friends. They live in their own world and hold every other person at arms length as they are unnecessary.

Fabienne is a powerful force and Agnes is more than happy to be her faithful follower. They use their power and will to manipulate those around them-sometimes fantastically and sometimes harmfully.

However Fabienne is able to see some aspects of their relationship more clearly then Agnes which leads to a rift in the friendship that never fully heals.

The story is intriguing but what really pulls you in are the words used to tell the story. They’re like a sharp edged fairytale.

A beautifully-written story where a grown up woman learns her childhood best friend has died in childbirth, sparking her to reminisce about their intense, somewhat-disturbing friendship in the French countryside. I was engrossed in the first part of the novel detailing the girls' obsessive friendship and their coming of age, but less entranced once Agnes went off to boarding school in England.

The Book of Goose is a fascinating, beguiling novel in which the adult narrator Agnès Moreau, now living in America, looks back on her impoverished childhood in a French village in the 1950s and her intense friendship with Fabienne. The world in which Agnès and Fabienne grow up is harsh and unsentimental and death is an everyday reality, including infant mortality and deaths in childbirth. This is reflected in the games they play and in the stories they start to write together, which leads to Agnès achieving a brief period of celebrity as a child prodigy and being sent to an English finishing school to continue writing there.

Yiyun Li's depiction of Agnès and Fabienne's relationship will remind many readers of Elena Ferrante's Neapolitan Novels. Fabienne in particular is a character of incredible vitality for whom the world has become too small, and the sadness we feel as they outgrow the intensity of their childhood bond is acute. Li's writing is economical but there is a real depth of feeling underneath this restraint.

The novel also offers a perceptive exploration imagination, creativity and the way this is perceived. There is a startling originality to Agnès and Fabienne's stories but this is gradually smothered by the attempts of various adults to take ownership of this, most notably Mrs Townsend, the proprietress of the English finishing school where Agnès spends the second half of the novel and where a real sense of claustrophobia is evoked.

This is a novel I will be thinking about for a very long time. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for sending me an ARC to review.

I'd like to thank Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with a copy of this book, in return for an honest review.

This is a story about childhood friendship, obsession, and self-realisation. It focuses on a few pivotal months in the lives of two childhood friends (Fabienne and Agnes) in rural France in the post-war years. It follows the friends as they debate what they want to do with their lives, the boundary between hope and reality, and what the role of girls and women in society is. The limits of individual freedom within various social structures are also nicely explored. The red thread in the novel is writing books and creating imaginary narratives (more about this later).

The book has an interesting premise and is written with nice pacing. The characters, while not particularly sympathetic, come across as well-rounded and multi-dimensional. While I didn't find myself liking the protagonists, I was captivated by their thought processes and experiences. There was something deeply disturbing about their relationship and worldviews, and it felt very visceral. A somewhat nightmarish mood prevailed, and created a unique atmosphere (Tim Burton-like in some ways?).

That being said - the book still fell flat. While it has some echoes of Elena Ferrante, the writing style felt rather less mature, and more volatile in terms of quality of outcomes. At times it was even boring, especially when the author diverged from the storyline and went too deep on tangents that really didn't help the plot. It's hard to put my finger on it - but I just didn't enjoy it. While some of it is in the atmosphere and the book's tendency to create real discomfort, a lot, in my view, is in the lack of polish. It's unclear whether it's bad editing, or bad writing, but it just didn't resonate as much with me. It also lacked closure, which I dislike in books overall. What was the point in all this?!

This is me speculating - I also found the tensions around writing books (as a theme in the novel), the relative role of various contributors, and the need of authority figures to take control of the creative process to be quite weird. It's almost like the author was channeling her own frustrations into the novel, and I just couldn't relate. Felt somewhat artificially imposed.

I actually think that some readers might find this an excellent book, and enjoy the atmosphere and the coming-of-age components. I just couldn't get over the style.

A quiet, powerful book that centers the friendship of two young girls and poses questions on ambition, who gets to dream and art. Reminiscent of Elena Ferrante's Neapolitan Quartet in the way it spans the friendship across ages. Stays with you long after you've read it.

Historical fiction like this is often a very hit or miss for me but wow was this an experience. The writing was phenomenal, I loved the exploration of childhood friendships and all in all this was just a fantastic piece of fiction. A book I will be going back to again and again.

Thank you to Netgalley and 4th Estate for sending me an advanced copy

A book of friendship the lyrically written novel by the fantastic authors yin lee.A book about Fabienne and Agnes I was drawn in from first page to last so haunting.A story that stays with you long after you read the last words.,#netgalley#4thestate

The Book of Goose by Yiyun Li s a novel that focus on an intense obsessive friendship and what it means to create a story.

Discovering Yiyun Li is certainly a highlight of my reading year!

"That's why Fabienne and I were meant for each other. We were the perfect pair, one seeking all that the other could experience."

The year is 1966, and Agnes is living in Pennsylvania with her husband Earl and a flock of chickens and geese when she gets word that her childhood friend Fabienne has passed away. Agnes tells us the events that took place during the "best summer" of her life in 1953 when she and Fabienne were in their teenage years in St. Remy, France.

In many ways, the two girls were polar opposites. Fabienne spent her days caring for farm animals. She was imaginative, a free spirit, a storyteller. Agnes, on the other hand, went to school, was obedient, and was a good reader and writer. However, both felt limited by and detached from their rural, war-scarred town and the people who live there, even their own family members - but together, they mastermind a plan to help Agnes escape.

This is a beautifully written book. I read it in two sittings. There's a thread of hope running throughout the story, but there's also real darkness. The relationship between the girls is complex and obsessional. There's a building sense of dread that something not-right is bound to happen from the start, which kept me furiously turning pages.

Big thanks to NetGalley and 4th Estate Books for an advance review copy in exchange for this honest review.

I had just read another novel, full of convolutions and talented words. In many ways, all such books are similar, with ingenuous narrators telling stories of books within the narrative and translations of love and loss. And this is no exception. But, a this can be different by half from a that, the difference between a mandrake and a full moon. Bridging such differences are Agnès, the Book’s self-effacing and self-doubting protagonist, and Fabien, her inseparable best friend and alter ego.
The contrast between love, as a matter of fact, and unspeakable love is epitomised in the lines, “Fabien looked at me the way she would look at an injured bird before wringing its neck. All my life, no one else has looked at me with such tender pity.”
Growing up takes patience. Love takes its own time. And, anyway, can two people ever say they have reached each other?
Agnès, assumed to be a child prodigy, is transported from her peasant community in Sothern France, fawned over by Parisian publishers, scrubbed-up like Eliza Doolittle, poised to be exploited, before finding herself back where she came from. Only, inevitably, she finds that a dividing mood has replaced the unity she remembered, or imagined, or wanted to believe in.
Death rides too on the wings of Agnès’s attachments. “It was a public holiday, but cows and goats and pigs and chickens did not celebrate the holidays. Sometimes they were killed for a celebration.” A life in harmony with nature is cruel and real. It is the novel’s magical kingdom. Agnès knows intuitively that a full life, muddy and smelly and overwhelming, has got to be better than the bland and functional. Is such a life only possible in books? Significantly in The Book of Goose, the books Agnès has written are always unopened, left un-read, promised but never passed on. A first step is to open. To part the pages, to break the spine. To read is essential and inspiring. In this book, you will learn how practicalities and the influence of others conspire to drive from the heart what it knows and wants and really needs.

“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.”
•
“I have not met a child who is not lopsided in some way. And when children grow up, they become lopsided adults.”
•
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.