'One of the most important books to be published in years' SARA COLLINS

'There are few writers with Li’s power' DOUGLAS STUART

'An extraordinary book’ SARAH MOSS

'A manifesto of living' SINÉAD GLEESON

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.

'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

'Resolutely unsentimental, and yet it might wind you with its emotional force' GUARDIAN

'A memoir unlike others, strange and profound and fiercely determined not to look away' NEW YORK TIMES

'A manifesto of living, not dying, and of how we endure the most unimaginable things' SINÉAD GLEESON, in THE WEEK

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

‘Li’s astonishing record of how she has chosen acceptance over despair' LA TIMES

Details

ISBN13: 9781398548862
Format: Paperback / softback
Number of Pages: 336
Edition: ANZ Only
Publication Date: 04 Jun 2025
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Ltd
Publication City, Country: Carlton North, Australia
Dimensions (cm): 23.4(H)x15.3(L)
Weight (gm): 334

Author Biography

Michael Bachelard is an Australian journalist and author. His first book, The Great Land Grab- what every Australian should know about Wik, Mabo and the Ten-Point Plan, was published in 1997. In 1998 he joined The Australian to work in its Melbourne bureau, where he covered the workplace, business, and politics. In 2006 he joined The Age as an investigative reporter and later became its Indonesia correspondent. He has worked as the newspaper's investigations editor, world editor, and, for two years, deputy editor. He has won multiple national awards for reporting, writing, and podcasting, including the Gold Walkley in 2017 for his coverage of the war against the Islamic State. He's now a Senior Writer at The Age.

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