Things in Nature Just Grow by Yiyun Lee Audiobook Review – Deconstructing Sadness | Biography and memoirs

‘TThere’s no good way to say this. This is the phrase police used when visiting Chinese-American writer Yun Li – twice. The first time, officers advised her and her husband to sit down before telling them that their son Vincent had died by suicide. The couple heard the same line several years later when James, their other son, also died by suicide. “My husband and I had two children and lost them together,” Lee says.

In this memoir, Lee describes how Vincent, aged 16, enjoyed baking, while James, aged 19, was a brilliant linguist and profound thinker. Shortly before Vincent’s death, Lee wrote a memoir about her bouts of depression that led to her suicide attempts. She wonders whether this contributed to her sons feeling that suicide could be an effective way out of difficulty.

All of this is thought through in a frank and stoic way, devoid of anger and remorse. She reveals how she and her husband embraced “radical acceptance,” which means living with the realities of their lives as they are now, no matter how difficult.

Voice actress Susan Turin provides a careful and sensitive reading, embodying the author’s calm, analytical mind, a testament to human endurance. She says: “In the abyss that I call my life, facts, with their logic, meaning and weight, are what I cling to.” “It’s not much, that’s holding out, and yet it’s the best I can do.”

Available via the fourth estate, 4 hours and 57 minutes

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In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on freephone 116 123, or by emailing jo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.ie. In the United States, you can call or text the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 988, chat at 988lifeline.org, or text HOME at 741741 to connect with a crisis counselor. In Australia, the Lifeline crisis support service is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at befrienders.org