A review by sonia_reppe
The Book of Goose by Yiyun Li

5.0

I love stories of friends in which one friend schemes and pulls the other along. I've remarked before that I love this dynamic for some reason; so this was a book for me.
Agnes, a pig herder whose brother is dying, and Fabienne, cow and goat herder, live hard lives in a depressed rural French village mid-20th century. From Agnes' POV, we see that Fabienne, fearless yet bright, is the mover and shaker of their lives. Agnes goes along with whatever Fabienne says, and that's how she ends up thrown into the spotlight, even though she only wants to be young and playing pranks with Fabienne forever, she is faced with her future. This is ultimately about how growth and change is everyone's fate and we can't do anything to stop it.