The Book of Goose

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

The Book of Goose begins with a metaphor about splitting apart: An orange can be split by a knife, but once this happens, the orange halves can never come together again.

The year is 1966. The narrator, Agnès, finds labels arbitrary. Rather, she wants the reader to remember Fabienne. Agnès is famous and living in America, so communication from her mother in France is no longer about pressuring her to become a mother. Agnès’s mother informs her of former friend Fabienne’s death by childbirth at 27. This makes Agnès want to give birth to a baby healthily so she can do something Fabienne couldn’t. However, her husband Earl is unable to have children, and she doesn’t want to leave him or cheat on him. She is from Saint Rémy, France, but she now lives in the Pennsylvania countryside with Earl, where she raises geese. Fabienne’s death inspires Agnès to write again.