| A family tragedy sheds light on a burgeoning mental-health emergency.  Photograph by Sarah Palmer for The New Yorker; Source photographs courtesy Angela Matthews More than five hundred kids between the ages of ten and fourteen died by suicide in 2020, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention—making it the second leading cause of death in that group, and as common as children that age being killed in car crashes. And yet, as Andrew Solomon writes in this week’s issue, while “the rate of youth suicide has been rising,” there remain “few therapeutic interventions for children with depression.” For Solomon, the recent death of one of his son’s classmates gives the story a personal urgency, and serves as an example of a central challenge: “children are often secretive about suicidal impulses; parents are often in denial.” This heartbreaking and pressing story is a call to action, one that focusses on the need to develop better systems of support. It’s also an exploration of how parents, siblings, friends, and others are left trying to make sense of the unthinkable. As Solomon writes of one family, “What they most wanted to know was why: even if it turned out that it was somehow their fault, it would be a relief to have some sort of answer.” —Ian Crouch, newsletter editor | 
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