Things in Nature Merely Grow
- Author Yiyun Li
- Narrator Suzanne Toren
- Publisher HarperCollins Publishers
- Publish Date 22 May 2025
- Run Time 4 hours and 56 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
WINNER OF THE ANDREW CARNEGIE MEDAL FOR EXCELLENCE IN NON-FICTION 2026
LONGLISTED FOR THE BAILLIE GIFFORD PRIZE FOR NON-FICTION 2025
LONGLISTED FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARDS 2025
FINALIST FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FOR NON-FICTION 2025
‘Unforgettable’ SUNDAY TIMES
‘Courageous’ OBSERVER
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.
‘One of the most important books to be published in years’ SARA COLLINS
‘A memoir unlike others, strange and profound and fiercely determined not to look away’ NEW YORK TIMES
‘To state that this courageous book is a testament to love is an understatement. One is left altered by it’ OBSERVER
‘A story of loss that is unlike any other book I've read … an unforgettable monument to endurance’ SUNDAY TIMES
‘A profound look at how a parent continues to live in a world without her children’ TIME
‘A book that has not a single spare word in it … I loved it so much’ ANN PATCHETT
‘There are few writers with Li’s power’ DOUGLAS STUART
‘The best book I have read this year’ DAVID NICHOLLS
‘An extraordinary book’ SARAH MOSS
‘One of the most astounding memoirs I have ever read’ PANDORA SYKES
‘I will return to it for the rest of my life’ CHARLOTTE WOOD
‘A manifesto of living, not dying, and of how we endure the most unimaginable things’ SINÉAD GLEESON
‘A book unlike any I've read, that brims with rare clarity and intelligence, with love and care. It will stay with me for a long time’ CECILE PIN
Critics Review
n Praise for Things in Nature Merely Grow:n
n‘An extraordinary, powerful, candid and intellectually confident book’ Baillie Gifford Prize Judges
n‘To state that this courageous book is a testament to love is an understatement. One is left altered by it’ Observer
n‘An unforgettable monument to endurance, one that offers a kind of fierce comfort’ Sunday Times
n‘A meditation on living and radical acceptance that has the potential to offer deep solace; comfort from the abyss’ Guardian
n‘A memoir unlike others, strange and profound and fiercely determined not to look away’ New York Times
n‘A wonderful and extraordinarily wise book …The nearest comparison is Didion's Year of Magical Thinking, which it matches. The best book I have read this year’ David Nicholls, author of You Are Here
n‘A book that has not a single spare word in it, that never relies on a cliché, that never resorts to how [Li] is supposed to feel … I loved it so much’ Ann Patchett, author of Tom Lake
n‘A formidable testament to a mother’s love … one of the most important books to be published in years’ Sara Collins, author of The Confessions of Frannie Langton
n‘A beautiful, unsentimental book that offers some understanding of coping with devastating loss’ Douglas Stuart, author of John of John
n‘One of the most astounding memoirs I have ever read … Li is a truly original thinker’ Pandora Sykes, author of How Do We Know We're Doing It Right?
n‘A manifesto of living, not dying, and of how we endure the most unimaginable things’ Sinéad Gleeson, The Week
n‘An astonishing high-wire act of writing and thinking and mourning … An extraordinary book’ Sarah Moss, author of Ripeness
n‘A book unlike any I've read, that brims with rare clarity and intelligence, with love and care’ Cecile Pin, author of Celestial Lights
n‘I don't think I’ve ever read a more truthful or humane book … I will return to it for the rest of my life’ Charlotte Wood, author of Stone Yard Devotional
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