Dear Friend, From My Life I Write to You in Your Life

Reveals, gloriously, the companionship, intimacy, and insight that can come from obsession with the written word

LA Review of Books

Literature, the clash of public and private, human nature itself-these subjects and more are explored with remarkable subtlety and rare, limpid mental beauty. A must-read for anyone trying to stay sane in a world that might be perceived as insane

Mary Gaitskill, author of The Mare

Weaving sharp literary criticism with a perceptive narrative about her life as an immigrant in America

The Millions

An intimate memoir of darkest despair... A potent journey of depression that effectively testifies to unbearable pain and the consolation of literature

Kirkus

Quietly forceful, unrelenting... She unfolds an argument with the self, suspicious of the very concept , but not, ultimately, refuse its possibilities

Eula Biss

Novelistic scenes, limpid prose, subtly moving emotion... Personal reminiscences [and] literary meditations... Li explores ruptures in time, the difficulty of writing autobiographical fiction, the pleasures of melodrama

Publisher's Weekly