Things in Nature Merely Grow

Praise for Things in Nature Merely Grow:

‘To state that this courageous book is a testament to love is an understatement. One is left altered by it at the same time as desperately wishing that it had never needed to be written at all’ Observer

‘An unforgettable monument to endurance, one that offers a kind of fierce comfort’ Sunday Times

‘A meditation on living and radical acceptance that has the potential to offer deep solace; comfort from the abyss’ Guardian

‘Grief 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 things’ Sinéad Gleeson, The Week

‘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

‘There are few writers with Li’s 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 read’ Douglas Stuart, author of Young Mungo

’I held my breath as I read, not because of jeopardy but because it’s such an astonishing high-wire act of writing and thinking and mourning … An extraordinary book’ Sarah Moss, author of Ripeness

‘Li’s astonishing record of how she has chosen acceptance over despair shows why artists among us sometimes offer more wisdom than any other spirituality’ LA Times

‘A profound look at how a parent continues to live in a world without her children’ TIME

‘The power of Things in Nature Merely Grow resides in her refusal to pay obeisance to words’ Harper’s Magazine

‘An impossible book, yet through Li’s deftness and determination she transforms the book into an intricate and nonlinear portrait of loss and love’ Chicago Review of Books

Yiyun Li grew up in Beijing, China, and came to the United States in 1996. She is the recipient of several prizes for her writing and an M.F.A. from the University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop. Li’s stories have been published in the New Yorker, the Paris Review and elsewhere. She lives in Iowa City, USA, with her husband and their two sons.