Things in Nature Merely Grow

De: Yiyun Li

Narrado por: Suzanne Toren

Yiyun Li’s remarkable, defiant work of radical acceptance 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 audiobook.

“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: “doing the things that work,” 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 an audiobook about grieving or mourning. 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.

A Macmillan Audio production from Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

©2025 Yiyun Li (P)2025 Macmillan Audio

Reseñas de la Crítica

“In this intimate memoir, novelist Li remembers her teenage sons, James and Vincent, after their deaths by suicide . . . Li recounts both boys’ lives with palpable love and paints complex, distinct portraits of each . . . Readers who’ve dealt with their own tragedies will find comfort and understanding here.”—Publishers Weekly

“Li manages the near impossible in a complex memoir that is as devastating as it is searingly insightful into the contours of grief and acceptance, recommended for anyone who is navigating the nonlinear timeline of loss.”—Greta Rainbow, Bustle (Best New Books of Spring)

The truth of her experience

I have lost two children not to suicide but loss leaves a chasm and her words in some places were like a bridge. While her words were extremely painful, I applaud her bravery and vulnerability in telling her reality. I thank her also.

Be careful with this

This one indeed must be treated carefully. Glad Toren read it. Rare gift. I was just in Princeton. Visited Godel's grave. Was fearful of bumping into Ms. Li or of recognizing because I had no offering or tea to serve. A mother. As a parent I know well too, though always in different capacities, different nuances and expressions, the voided self a loving parent becomes. What could have been said to Godel? To Walter Benjamin? Or to their parents were they cognizant of the bounteous gifts harboring within their children? Hardly would one wish one's kids calloused, nor too sensitive. But how can one truly be too sensitive? Sensitive to what? - exactly. Ain't easy at all. But no parent can regret any moment of any life that culminates art times with such beauty, despite abridgment. Now I shall go watch the rain fall on my irises and drink the brewed waters of Kuan Yin.

Heartbreaking and Beautiful

Absolutely no words to describe this book. Definitely worth reading and the performance of the audio book is wonderful.

Her deep and beautiful descriptions of sorrow

The concise and descriptive sentences that filled me with wonder and sadness. Such a remarkable author!!

Lovely and loving book about a Mother’s love for her children

This is a lovely book about a mother’s love for her children. It is about how she lives on after the suicides of her boys. It is about death, but it is really about life and living.

Bracing

I’m glad I listened to this book rather than reading it - the narrator’s voice & style were essential to my ability to finish it. So calm, measured & matter-of-fact, yet with just the right hint of emotion in just the right amount. I appreciate the decision to choose this particular narrator for this particular book.

As for the book - well, all I will say is that it is among the most important books I have ever read (or, in this case, listened to). Thank you to author.

Beautiful, soft, painful, and enduring

Yiyun Li is a master at holding such difficult subjects with greatly restrained words, full of vulnerability and courage. It was a beautiful, soft, yet painful and enduring listening.

A series of facts.

The book intricately threads a retelling of her life through profoundly simple facts. The reader did an excellent job.