Things in Nature Merely Grow

LONGLISTED FOR THE BAILLIE GIFFORD PRIZE FOR NON-FICTION 2025

‘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