Things in Nature Merely Grow (2026)

Yiyun Lis remarkable memoir begins with the devastating facts: she and her husband had two children and lost them both, Vincent in 2017 at sixteen and James in 2024 at nineteen, both to suicide. With words that acknowledge their limits, Li searches for a way to hold a place for her son James through radical acceptance. She writes, gardens, reads Camus and Wittgenstein, learns the piano and lives thoughtfully alongside death. This is a testament to a mothers love and to Lis indomitable spirit, described as a meditation on living, an unforgettable monument to endurance and a memoir unlike any other. Longlisted for the Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction 2025 and the National Book Critics Circle Awards 2025, it is a finalist for the National Book Award for Non-Fiction 2025 and winner of the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Non-Fiction 2026.