Overview

LONGLISTED FOR THE BAILLIE GIFFORD PRIZE FOR NON-FICTION 2025 ‘The best book I have read this year’ DAVID NICHOLLS ‘Beautiful’ DOUGLAS STUART ‘Extraordinary’ SARAH MOSS ‘A formidable testament to a mother’s love’ SARA COLLINS ‘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. In this remarkable, defiant work of radical acceptance, Li turns to thinking and searching for words that might hold a place for her son, James. Li does ‘the things that work’: including not just writing but gardening, reading Camus and Wittgenstein, learning the piano, and living thinkingly alongside death. Things in Nature Merely Grow is a testament to Li’s indomitable spirit. Winner of the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Non-Fiction 2026 Longlisted for the National Book Critics Circle Awards 2025 Finalist for the National Book Award for Non-Fiction 2025 ‘To state that this courageous book is a testament to love is an understatement. One is left altered by it’ Observer ‘Unlike any other book I've read … an unforgettable monument to endurance’ Sunday Times ‘A book that has not a single spare word in it … I loved it so much’ Ann Patchett, author of Tom Lake ‘A meditation on living and radical acceptance’ Guardian ‘A memoir unlike others, strange and profound and fiercely determined not to look away’ New York Times ‘One of the most astounding memoirs I have ever read’ Pandora Sykes, author of How Do We Know We're Doing It Right? ‘I will return to it for the rest of my life’ Charlotte Wood, author of Stone Yard Devotional ‘A manifesto of living, not dying’ Sinéad Gleeson, The Week

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9780008778156

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Reviews

Praise for Things in Nature Merely Grow: ‘An extraordinary, powerful, candid and intellectually confident book’ Baillie Gifford Prize Judges ‘To state that this courageous book is a testament to love is an understatement. One is left altered by it’ 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 ‘A memoir unlike others, strange and profound and fiercely determined not to look away’ New York Times ‘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 ‘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 ‘An astonishing high-wire act of writing and thinking and mourning … An extraordinary book’ Sarah Moss, author of Ripeness ‘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 ‘A beautiful, unsentimental book that offers some understanding of coping with devastating loss’ Douglas Stuart, author of John of John ‘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? ‘A manifesto of living, not dying, and of how we endure the most unimaginable things’ Sinéad Gleeson, The Week ‘A book unlike any I've read, that brims with rare clarity and intelligence, with love and care’ Cecile Pin, author of Celestial Lights ‘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

Praise for Yiyun Li: 'One of our finest living authors' New York Times 'Li writes with a shimmering and deeply felt precision' Guardian ‘Few writers tackle the way grief reverberates through our lives with Li’s frankness, tact, and humour’ Vulture 'Any book by Yiyun Li is a cause for celebration' Sigrid Nunez 'One of the great writers of our time' Tash Aw

Praise for Things in Nature Merely Grow: ‘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 ‘I 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 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. There’s bleak but wild exhilaration in reading something so uncompromisingly committed to thinking all the way down. 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 ‘Li 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 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

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

Author Information

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.

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