The book has simple but evocative illustrations and a small amount of short but clever text. It tells the story of a goose who meets death and befriends it. The author does not try to relieve anyone of their fear of death, but calmly shows that dying happens to everyone.
This book captivated me at first sight. My four-year-old son Franek, ever since I brought home the first copies straight from the printers, made himself read it every now and then. As we approached the pages where the goose dies, I could see the concentration on his face. As we turned the last page of the book, Franek would ask: "Read". The third time he asked: "And where is the goose?". Then I stepped into the role of narrator and tried to grapple with the answer to this question. An extremely creative experience! I felt that with this unique, authoritative book by Wolf Erlbruch, you can really tame the fear of death and have a fascinating conversation about passing... even with a four-year-old. The book is beautiful, poignant and moves me to tears every time I read it or 'just' look at it.