Following the suicides of her two teenage sons, acclaimed author Yiyun Li has released a new novel that uses music to articulate emotions that words cannot capture. Her latest book, titled _Music Against the Night_, was published as she reflects on loss through a historical lens rather than direct autobiography.
Li’s 2025 memoir, _Things in Nature Merely Grow_, won a Pulitzer Prize and detailed the deaths of her sons, Vincent, who died in 2017 at age 16, and James, who passed away in 2024 at age 19. In interviews, Li has expressed discomfort with terms like “grief” or the “grieving process,” suggesting they imply an endpoint. Instead, she describes her experience as living within an “abyss” that she expects to remain for the rest of her life.
“James’ death taught me to suffer better,” Li said. “To say, ‘I can do it, and I can live with my pain and sorrow without ever wanting to stop feeling.'”
Set in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, her new novel focuses on two prodigies connected by their musical talents but separated by their ambitions. Li chose this setting and subject matter because music exists outside of verbal language, providing a narrative space where words naturally fall short.
“When I start a new project, I would like a subject where words naturally fall short. So music is that choice,” she explained. She noted that while words failing does not mean failure, it allows for a different mode of expression.
Li, who grew up in China and spent a year in the Chinese military before moving to the United States to study immunology, eventually left her Ph.D. program to pursue writing. She currently serves as a professor in the creative writing program at Princeton University.
The novel began taking shape before her youngest son’s death, offering Li a way to inhabit a historical period distinct from her immediate personal trauma. For those affected by similar loss, resources such as the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline are available by calling or texting 988.
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