Things in Nature Merely Grow
- Author Yiyun Li
- Narrator Suzanne Toren
- Publisher HarperCollins Publishers
- Publish Date 22 May 2025
- Run Time 5 hours and 57 minutes
- Format Audio
- Genre Autobiography: general, Literary essays, Memoirs, Narrative theme: Death, grief, loss, Parenting: advice and issues, Relationships and families: advice and issues, Topics in philosophy.
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What to expect
'One of the most important books to be published in years' SARA COLLINS
'There are few writers with Li’s power' DOUGLAS STUART
'An extraordinary book’ SARAH MOSS
'A manifesto of living' SINÉAD GLEESON
A remarkable, defiant work of radical acceptance from acclaimed Pulitzer Prize finalist Yiyun Li as she considers the loss of her son James.
'There is no good way to say this,' Yiyun Li writes at the beginning of this book.
'There is no good way to state these facts, which must be acknowledged. My husband and I had two children and lost them both: Vincent in 2017, at sixteen, James in 2024, at nineteen. Both chose suicide, and both died not far from home.'
There is no good way to say this – because words fall short. It takes only an instant for death to become fact, 'a single point in a timeline'. Living now on this single point, Li turns to thinking and reasoning and searching for words that might hold a place for James. Li does what she can: including not just writing but gardening, reading Camus and Wittgenstein, learning the piano, and living thinkingly alongside death.
This is a book for James, but it is not a book about grieving. As Li writes, 'The verb that does not die is to be. Vincent was and is and will always be Vincent. James was and is and will always be James. We were and are and will always be their parents. There is no now and then, now and later, only, now and now and now and now.' Things in Nature Merely Grow is a testament to Li’s indomitable spirit.
As seen in the New Yorker, Vanity Fair, LA Times, TIME, and the Paris Review.
'A manifesto of living, not dying, and of how we endure the most unimaginable things' SINÉAD GLEESON, THE WEEK
'A profound look at how a parent continues to live in a world without her children’ TIME
‘Li’s astonishing record of how she has chosen acceptance over despair' LA TIMES
Critics Review
n Praise for Things in Nature Merely Grow:n
nu2018Grief is a difficult subject to write about, but this devastating account of the suicides of Li's two sons is clear-eyed and unsentimental. It's a manifesto of living, not dying, and of how we endure the most unimaginable thingsu2019 Sinu00e9ad Gleeson, The Week
nu2018I have never read a book in which illumination meets devastation on such equal footing, nor have I ever read such a formidable testament to a motheru2019s love u2026 one of the most important books to be published in yearsu2019 Sara Collins, author of The Confessions of Frannie Langton
nu2018There are few writers with Liu2019s power and this is a beautiful, unsentimental book that offers some understanding of coping with devastating loss. It offers a powerful human connection and I was reminded that this is why we write, this is why we readu2019 Douglas Stuart, author of Young Mungo
n'I held my breath as I read, not because of jeopardy but because itu2019s such an astonishing high-wire act of writing and thinking and mourning. Thereu2019s bleak but wild exhilaration in reading something so uncompromisingly committed to thinking all the way down. An extraordinary booku2019 Sarah Moss, author of Ripeness
nu2018Liu2019s astonishing record of how she has chosen acceptance over despair shows why artists among us sometimes offer more wisdom than any other spiritualityu2019 LA Times
nu2018Li does not shy away from the magnitude of these losses. Instead, she writes of radical acceptance, offering a profound look at how a parent continues to live in a world without her childrenu2019 TIME
n'The power of Things in Nature Merely Grow resides in her refusal to pay obeisance to words' Harperu2019s Magazine
nu2018An impossible book, yet through Liu2019s deftness and determination she transforms the book into an intricate and nonlinear portrait of loss and loveu2019 Chicago Review of Books
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