The Book of Goose

The Book of Goose (2022) by Yiyun Li is a contemporary historical fiction novel that explores the importance of female friendship, memory, and storytelling. Li is a Chinese writer based in the United States, the recipient of several awards and honors—including the PEN/Faulkner Award for The Book of Goose (2023), the Guggenheim Fellowship (2013), and a MacArthur Fellowship (2010). She is the author of six fictional books, and her short stories are regularly published in literary journals and The New Yorker.

This guide is based on the Farrar, Straus & Giroux edition published in 2022.

Content Warning: The Book of Goose discusses or depicts sexual harassment and sexual assault (targeting a minor), alcohol addiction, and death by childbirth.

Plot Summary

Agnès is a French woman who lives in America with her husband Earl. Earl is unable to get Agnès pregnant, but she doesn’t mind not being a mother, as she is satisfied taking care of her geese. However, when she receives a letter from her mother about the death of her childhood friend Fabienne, Agnès is inspired to write Fabienne’s story—The Book of Goose. In the past, she and Fabienne grow up in an impoverished village called Saint Rémy in the French countryside. They come of age after the destruction of World War II. Scars of the war remain everywhere, in Agnès’s family’s poverty and the slow death of her brother Jean. Agnès escapes tragedy in Saint Rémy with Fabienne. Fabienne is intelligent, creative, sometimes cruel, and always interesting, the leader in their friendship; she brings Agnès into her fantasy worldbuilding through games.

Fabienne comes up with a new game: She and Agnès will write a book together. Fabienne will come up with stories and Agnès, a student with good penmanship, will write them. They seek out Monsieur Devaux, the town’s postmaster, to help because his wife recently died. He is educated and has connections in Paris. He helps the girls edit their book, but he and Fabienne develop a toxic friendship—partially due to him being in his sixties and the girls being 13. Fabienne sees herself as older and teases Devaux, which makes him intrigued. She decides to only credit Agnès as the author of their book. Devaux helps Agnès get a publisher, Monsieur Chastain. Chastain sees the potential in Agnès’s book because of its morbidity, and marketing a “girl genius” from a poor village will earn his company fame and money. The book is a success, and Agnès becomes famous; however, this fame is tinged by tokenization. People buy her book and journalists come to Saint Rémy to photograph her in her “natural habitat.”

Many people theorize Agnès’s book was written by Devaux. Townspeople have noted how close he is with Agnès and Fabienne, deeming this inappropriate. He does overstep boundaries with Fabienne, giving her alcohol, trying to touch her, and proposing she become his mistress. Fabienne, realizing she has given Devaux too much power over her and Agnès, decides to ruin him. She accuses him of sexual assault and although there is not enough proof to arrest him, he is run out of the village due to the scandal. Meanwhile, the success of Agnès’s first book captures Mrs. Townsend’s attention. She is an Englishwoman who runs a boarding school for future debutantes in England. She steps in as Agnès’s manager and offers her a year of free education at her school. Agnès doesn’t want to leave Fabienne, but everyone, including her family, believes it’s in her best interest to pursue this opportunity.

Agnès moves to England to attend Mrs. Townsend’s school, Woodsway. She admires its idyllic beauty, but quickly learns Mrs. Townsend’s real intentions with her. She sees Agnès as a pet project, an experiment to make a debutante out of a peasant girl; she is also a failed writer who wants to live vicariously through Agnès. She insists Agnès write a book about her time at Woodsway. Agnès doesn’t want to write, due to Fabienne being the true storyteller. She misses home and writes letters to Fabienne. She and Fabienne create a fictional character named Jacques, Fabienne’s fake brother. Agnès and Jacques “date,” with Fabienne roleplaying as Jacques. Jacques’s letters confuse Agnès and make her hope they reflect Fabienne’s true feelings. Mrs. Townsend pushes Agnès to break up with Jacques, but Agnès refuses. She asks the gardener Meaker to help her run away, but Meaker informs Mrs. Townsend. Mrs. Townsend fires Meaker and confronts Agnès, and Agnès insists she be sent home.

Agnès returns to Saint Rémy. Her second book, also dictated by Fabienne, is not as successful as her first. She retreats from literary fame and people quickly forget about her. However, Fabienne and Agnès are about to turn 15, and Fabienne insists it’s time to grow up; their friendship fades. Agnès moves to a neighboring town to work in a dress maker’s shop. She breaks up with a fiancée and eventually moves to Paris, where she meets an American man named Earl. She marries Earl and moves to America. Meanwhile, Fabienne runs away with a circus and returns to Saint Rémy years later, pregnant. She dies in childbirth, and Agnès decides to write The Book of Goose to memorialize Fabienne’s genius.