Things In Nature Merely Grow by YiYun Li

Even when compared to other memoirs that cover the landscape of a personal response to tragedy, this is a standout. I have been a mental health professional for 40 years and I have heard a lot of tragic stories. This stands alone. Her experience is so particularly moving and painful that I would say she really opens her broken heart very wide-- she writes about the suicide of her 19-year-old son, James, in 2024 after having healed --- to an extent --- from the death of her 16-year-old son, Vincent, who did the same in 2017. It’s devastating yet so practical, humbling and numbing that it will take readers down many paths of their own and keep this book on their shelves as a message for grief in all shapes and sizes. Reading through her understated and clear eyed way of living with her pain will help you stop in your tracks and try to face the next time anyone you love upsets you with gratitude. To see them is to have another chance to appreciate them, something she no longer can do. It is a reminder to live each day fully and to try to find beauty even where it might be deeply hidden.