Things in Nature Merely Grow

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