There Are Rivers in the Sky

A Novel

By: Elif Shafak

Narrated by: Olivia Vinall, Elif Shafak

From the Booker Prize finalist, author of The Island of Missing Trees, an enchanting new tale about three characters living along two great rivers, all connected by a single drop of water.

"Make place for Elif Shafak on your bookshelf. Make place for her in your heart too. You won't regret it."—Arundhati Roy, winner of the Booker Prize

In the ancient city of Nineveh, on the bank of the River Tigris, King Ashurbanipal of Mesopotamia, erudite but ruthless, built a great library that would crumble with the end of his reign. From its ruins, however, emerged a poem, the Epic of Gilgamesh, that would infuse the existence of two rivers and bind together three lives.

In 1840 London, Arthur is born beside the stinking, sewage-filled River Thames. With an abusive, alcoholic father and a mentally ill mother, Arthur’s only chance of escaping destitution is his brilliant memory. When his gift earns him a spot as an apprentice at a leading publisher, Arthur’s world opens up far beyond the slums, and one book in particular catches his interest: Nineveh and Its Remains.

In 2014 Turkey, Narin, a ten-year-old Yazidi girl, is diagnosed with a rare disorder that will soon cause her to go deaf. Before that happens, her grandmother is determined to baptize her in a sacred Iraqi temple. But with the rising presence of ISIS and the destruction of the family’s ancestral lands along the Tigris, Narin is running out of time.

In 2018 London, the newly divorced Zaleekah, a hydrologist, moves into a houseboat on the Thames to escape her husband. Orphaned and raised by her wealthy uncle, Zaleekah had made the decision to take her own life in one month, until a curious book about her homeland changes everything.

A dazzling feat of storytelling, There Are Rivers in the Sky entwines these outsiders with a single drop of water, a drop which remanifests across the centuries. Both a source of life and harbinger of death, rivers—the Tigris and the Thames—transcend history, transcend fate: “Water remembers. It is humans who forget.”

©2024 Elif Shafak (P)2024 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

"An odyssey, an epic, a lament, and a tale of redemption, There Are Rivers in the Sky is a clarion call to honor the elemental forces that shape our memories, our histories, and our world. In short, a masterpiece."—Ruth Ozeki, author of The Book of Form and Emptiness

"Flows like rivers from ancient Nineveh to present-day London with characters of the distant past as bright and vivid as those of today.” —Philippa Gregory, author of The Other Boleyn Girl

“Walt Whitman said that a blade of grass contains the journey work of stars. William Blake wrote that we can see the world in a grain of sand. Toni Morrison said that we never shape the world, but the world shapes us. And so Shafak finds the world in a drop of water. She discovers the epic in the tiny, the global in the local, the love in the loss, the history in the momentary. An extraordinary novel, fresh and cleansing, like the rain bouncing off the metal roof of our lives.” —Colum McCann, author of Let the Great World Spin and Aperignon

Masterful

Lyrical, historically accurate, painstakingly researched, beautifully narrated. One of my favorite books in the last five years

Heavy but beautiful

Human stories moving and compelling. The first chapters were hard to get into but I enjoyed more and more as book went on

Beautiful story telling

Follow a drop of water through time and people. I couldn’t stop listening! And I already want to listen again. It’s one of those books that you never want to end

Story of water

An outstanding book with brilliant narration! I was captivated by how the author seamlessly blends historical details into a story that’s both heartbreaking and beautiful. I highly recommend it.

Very Memorable Characters

This was an excellent recounting of a unique story. I was entranced by the tales of King Arthur. Narin, and Zaleekah, and the water that interconnects their fates. I was not familiar with this author before, but plan to enjoy more of her books.

The stunning historical research makes the story

It’s just a beautiful story told with fascinating historical detail. I highly recommend this book.

Stunning!

What can I say? I loved everything from the beautiful characters, nods to history, and the Yazoo culture to the lyrical writing and phenomenal narration. I think this book is to be added to my favorites list! I didn’t want it to end!

Epic Historical Fiction Novel

Incredibly descriptive lyrical, writing telling a captivating tragic story going back to the early days of Mesopotamia and coming up to the modern times. So much information was new and intriguing and encouraged me to investigate and learn more about the poems of Gilgamesh and the.Yazidis people -

It’s a powerful story that I believe needs to be told

Fantastic book and beautifully red

I will admit, I am already a fan of this Author, but this was one of her best and the reader was incredible

This was a fascinating read—very different but extremely timely. The reader did a wonderful job!

Nothing much at all … although I would have liked a clearer depiction of the scourge of ISIS and the forces aligning against it.