I ONCE, very briely, met Yiyun Li. It was in the authors’ yurt at the Edinburgh Book Festival in Scotland and I was struck by her beautiful smile. Among the writers rushing manically to their speaking and signing sessions, she looked serene. So the darkness in Dear Friend, From My Life I Write to You in Your Life, her new book of essays combining personal memoir with her relections on literature, came as a shock.
Born in China in 1972, Li spent a year in the army before moving to the U.S. as an aspiring immunologist when she was 24. It was her discovery of the work of the Irish novelist William Trevor, and later her friendship with him, that persuaded her to abandon science for writing. She has since made her name as the author of two novels, The Vagrants and Kinder Than Solitude, and two short-story collections. Among the prizes she has won are the Guardian First Book Award and the Sunday Times Short Story Award, and Granta included her in its list of 21 Best of Young American Novelists in 2007. But while writing Dear Friend, she gave up fiction completely.
OUT OF THE DARK: Li, who grew up in Communist China in the 1970s, has struggled with depression—but “I don’t cry over my childhood,” she says.
FROM TOP: HAMISH HAMILTON; PHILLIPPE MATSAS