A strong and starkly beautiful collection of stories from Yiyun Li. I recently read Li’s novel “Where Reasons End,” and I feel like my appreciation of these stories was heightened by the way “Wednesday’s Child” takes up so many of the ideas and questions of that novel, almost like it is (not-unkindly) haunted by “Where Reasons End.”

In general, repetition in art is something I really enjoy, so the way these stories resonate with one another was something very satisfying to see; there are no repeating characters, but the situations and narrators seem to be refractions of one another, as if through facets of a prism. Many of the stories center around Asian-American women who are caregivers of some kind; often, they seem emotionally isolated, prone to reflection and generally I think averse to sentimentality. The stories are very patient, almost meditative at times, which I think is one of their great strengths.

My favorites are the final three stories; “Alone” has some stellar writing about the ripples of a childhood tragedy, and the beautifully-titled “When We Were Happy We Had Other Names” is a really raw and poignant vignette, mainly showing the relationship between a husband and wife after the suicide of their son. I think it’s one of the most moving stories in the collection. The final story, “All Will Be Well,” is the only one in first person, and it feels very special for just that reason; it also seems noteworthy for Li because it appears to be autobiographical or at least based loosely on Li’s own life, something that (if my understanding is correct) she never did before “Where Reasons End.” Beautifully, “All Will Be Well” also plays with questions of reality and fiction. To me, there’s something humble and honest about the way that, at the end of this collection, the ‘veil’ seems to fall away with an autobiographical story. (I don’t mean to imply autobiographical fiction is somehow better or more honest than other fiction; neither do I mean to say that I take the final story to be pure autobiography, since Li herself has marked it as fiction by including it in the collection.)

Yiyun Li is very brilliant, and I think she writes with precision, patience, and humility that are rare to encounter.

I read Yiyun Li’s novel The Book of Goose back in February, so when @netgalley and Farrar, Straus and Giroux graciously allowed me to read this uncorrected digital proof, I knew that I’d be in for a phenomenal reading experience. Li is a fabulous writer. To me, she writes like a poet: every word, every phrase, every piece of punctuation is purposefully chosen—and the end result is a masterpiece.

Wednesday’s Child is a collection of short stories—and like the famous line of poetry, it is full of woe. This is not a light, frothy romp. Rather, these stories of grief, loss, aging, and alienation will leave you feeling contemplative and rather melancholic. This is not a collection to be rushed through, but rather to be lingered over. If you’re in the mood for something a little more emotional and a little more fitting to some future gloomy fall days, this might be an excellent choice. Sensitive readers should absolutely check out the content warnings on StoryGraph first, though.

This ARC was provided by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. It will be published on September 5.

Wednesday’s Child is a beautifully written collection of short stories addressing themes such as immigration, grief, motherhood and aging. All of the stories focus of different women’s experiences at different points in life. Two of the stories deal with the loss of a child, while one grapples with a new mother’s feelings of inadequacy after the birth of her child.

Li’s writing has a lyrical quality to it and some sentences have to be read more than once simply for the enjoyment of the words and structure. While the stories are beautifully written I did have issues connecting with many of the stories, and there were one or two stories I just didn’t really enjoy at all. I think I would have preferred to read one story a day rather than ingesting the whole book in a short period of time; I think the enjoyment factor would have been much higher. I really liked Li’s last novel, The Book of Goose, but found this harder to read.

3.75 rounded to 4 stars for the beauty of the words, but I do wished I could have connected more with the stories

Thank you NetGalley and Farrar, Staus and Giroux for the advanced copy to review.

Beautiful collection of short stories filled with a raw complexity of human emotions and nuance that touched my soul. Every story drew me in and affected me - there weren’t any that left me wanting more or less. Pick this one up and read it - each one - take your time and reflect after each one. The author has a gift in their ability to describe so many aspects of the human condition including despair and hope. Loved it.

This was a remarkable set of short stories, focused on the lives of Asian immigrant women and their loves and losses. Clear, incisive prose whisks you away into the stories of these women. The stories are unconnected but the themes weave them together.

I gotta stop reading collections of "literary" short fiction (as opposed to "genre"). I just find it really hard to connect with short stories, unless there's some speculative-fiction hook to them, and this collection was no exception. Nothing stuck with me and I was never interested in any of the stories, but I view that as a me problem, not a Yiyun Li problem. I'm sure readers with a better capacity for enjoying these kinds of short stories will find a lot of value in this collection, but I'm just not one of them, unfortunately.

Yiyun L I has written another beautiful collection of stories.Each of her books have been literary fiction at its best.This one was emotionally moving.#netgalley #fsg

Read these beautifully written poignant stories of love and loss one at a time- because otherwise the weight of the grief and sorrow could be overwhelming. Li has carefully explored the boundaries of life when there's something awful that's happened. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. Gorgeous writing on sad topics.

AH! I am so thankful to Macmillan Audio, FSG/MCD, Netgalley, and Yiyun Li for granting me digital, audio, and physical access to this gem of a book. I loved Li's The Book of Goose, so I had high expectations for this one. I'm a HOE for a book of stories, and I just ate this one up. Li compiled a series of sad and inspirational tales about growth and loss all in one, breaking my heart with each turning page.

Wednesday's Child is set to hit shelves on September 5, 2023 and I'm just counting down the days until pub day!

Wednesday’s Child is a lovely collection of stories to take your time with. There are somber themes involving grief, the examination of past choices, and how well we know (or don’t know) ourselves and others. Li was already one of my favorite authors, and this collection did not disappoint. Recommended for fans of Li, short stories, or reflective works.

Thank you to NetGalley and Farrar, Straus and Giroux for providing a digital review copy.

Yiyun Li is a gorgeous writer--clear, clean prose that somehow manages to be lyrical and luminous at the same time. She has that ability to make her writing seem effortless, even though writing this good must be anything but. I read and loved her novel "Where Reasons End," about a woman coping with the suicide of her young son and mirroring Li's own loss of her son to suicide. And suicide haunts many of the stories in "Wednesday's Child," including the titular one in which a woman named Rosalie decides to take a solo trip to Europe in the wake of her daughter Marcie's suicide, because "since Marcie's death, Rosalie and Dan had learned that a shared pain was simply that, a permanent presence of a permanent absence in both their lives. There was no shared cure, not even a shared alleviation." These are definitely difficult stories to read--in "When We Were Happy We Had Different Names," Jiayu navigates the immediate aftermath of her son Evan's suicide by starting a spreadsheet on her computer of everyone she had met in her life who had died. In "Alone," a woman who was the sole survivor of a suicide pact that took the lives of five girls contemplates the life she alone was able to continue living and makes her own choices about whether she wants it to go on any longer. There is a mother trying to come to terms with her son's autism in "On the Street Where You Live." There are broken marriages, old age, disillusionment. The stories in "Wednesday's Child" ask us as readers to face difficult truths that we might want to turn from, lived by characters whose fates have allowed them no choice in the matter. As one says in the last words of the book, “All will be well, all will be well, and every kind of thing shall be well, yet I could not even write a lying note to console my children.” Li doesn’t lie about the world as she sees it in this collection, but she manages, with her beautiful, nuanced prose, to gently guide us through.

Thank you to NetGalley and to Farar, Straus and Giroux for providing me with an ARC of this title in return for my honest review. Highly recommended.

Although most of these stories appeared in the New Yorker in perhaps a slightly different form (I didn’t do a careful comparison), I somehow missed the first title story when it first came out. It’s a doozy though, and set in some European capital’s train station! *swoons*

Thanks to NetGalley and FSG for an e-ARC!

Wednesday's Child is a collection of stories by Yiyun Li that are beautiful, but sad. Considering the collection is named for Wednesday's child is "full of woe", this does not come as a surprise. In these eleven stories, two college friends come together during COVID as one is leaving her husband, a nanny takes care of only newborns so she forms no long-term attachment, a woman kept getting emails from a man years after she last met him, and a woman makes a spreadsheet of all the death she has encountered in her life after her son dies by suicide. The first story, which the collection takes it's title from was deeply moving. A woman travels to Belgium and reminisces about her relationship with her mother, comparing it with her relationship with her daughter who recently died by suicide. Depression and child death are themes among several of the stories, which are even more meaningful knowing the author's history. With any short story collection, some resonated more than others, but fans of Li should also very much enjoy this as well.

Thank you to Farrar, Straus and Giroux for the advance reader copy in exchange for honest review.

quiet, reflective accounts of birth, life and death. a collection of short stories, written by li over 15 years, however all fit seamlessly together with their shared commentary on motherhood, aging and loss. each story reflecting the experience of an asian migrant family, the history that brought them to their current lives, and often its inescapability.

each scene, its characters and poignant prose, captivating. often, the elation of female characters, juxtaposed to a cast of ordinary at best men. most stories lack any resolve, but provoke questions on life and a reminder of how little we may ever know.

my favourite of those; a sheltered woman and such common life. each a story of two women, with more in common than their shared silence ever told.

A collection of beautifully written short stories. Although the stories are not connected, there are some repeating themes; the well crafted female characters remind us of the challenges of being a woman and a mother.

I absolutely loved The Book of Goose and this short story collection by Yiyun Li has a similar tone and vibe. It is a bit dark, feminine, mysterious, and incredibly beautifully written.

This is the first writing I have read from this author and I really enjoyed it. These were short stories, however they were crafted in a way that made them so complete unto themselves. The situations were all unique yet the stories belonged together seamlessly. This is what I love about well written and curated short story books. I will be reading more from this author and was blessed to experience the profound loss, grief, despair, and many other emotions that I experienced when reading this book. Thanks for the ARC, NetGalley,

This is a book that celebrates the lushness of sentences. Yiyun Li's latest book will be an excellent adoption to my creative writing Fiction class, both for its study of story structure and as an exemplar of phenomenal writing. Each story's ability to connect to the larger theme of loss while still being uniquely interesting and different is something wholly remarkable. A truly memorable book.

Wednesday's Child is great short story collection that highlights the emotion and talent Li can evoke with the most simple of plots and story structures. The stories are emotional, well written and balanced, while there is a little bit to the desired by the editing as a whole. A big overarching theme of the book is motherhood, but it seems like the most obvious mother-centered stories are at the beginning, while it is at the end that Li ventures into other topics. It makes for a bit of a boring read, where I would be entranced at the beginning of a new story, but would find myself closing the book as soon as I finished one, dreading having to read about the same topics once again.
But that is not to say Li's writing isn't compelling, it is. It's potent and intelligent. Between this and Book of Goose, which I read last year, Li has become an auto-read writer for me.

An amazing set of short stories! I have had The Book of Goose on my TBR for a while and after reading this I’ll definitely be picking it up!