“A conversation about the semantics of emotion” – Where Reasons End by Yiyun Li

"As a study of memory and death, it’s fitting that Nikolai is both there and not there; he haunts the text, both contemptuous and comforting, a liminal presence that both offers his mother solace and reminds her of his irrefutable absence. She herself occupies a semantic liminal zone between parent and not-parent; she notes that there’s no word to describe her status. The book asks us, then, again: how can one be, if there’s no language with which to describe this existence? Nikolai no longer is, and so she exists now between clichés and silence. As the book’s title suggest, Li offers no answers: ‘How far digressed are we allowed to be on a one-way road before we are called lost? And if one is not lost, can one be found again?’" - Valerie O'Riordan reviews Where Reasons End by Yiyun Li

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