In her first nonfiction book, award-winning novelist Yiyun Li explores the questions we ask ourselves as readers and writers, as citizens and solitary travellers, as parents and children: How does one make life livable? How do writing and reading bring us solace, and help us embrace the conflicts of our daily reality? Tracing the course of her life from China to America, and from biologist to writer, Li reflects with startling generosity and humanity on the writers who have shaped her — William Trevor, Katherine Mansfield, Marianne Moore, Ivan Turgenev, Stefan Zweig and more. (From Random House)