Summary

The novel opens with a brief description of “an orange that did not think itself good enough for a knife, and an orange that never dreamed of turning itself into a knife” (3-4). The narrator then introduces herself as Agnès Moreau, a Frenchwoman living in Pennsylvania in the mid-1960s. She contends that the story is about Fabienne, a childhood friend who recently died in childbirth. Agnès and Fabienne have not spoken in many years. Agnès raises geese with her husband, Earl, who is infertile. Agnès notes that Fabienne’s death is a “parole paper” (9) that allows her to return to writing.

In 1952, when they are both thirteen years old, Agnès and Fabienne live in the small, impoverished French village of Saint Rémy. They often “amuse [themselves] with [their] own nonsense,” and sometimes discuss whether they “can...