There Are Rivers in the Sky: A novel
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.”
"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.”
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Readers say *There Are Rivers in the Sky* by Elif Shafak is a richly woven, beautifully detailed novel connecting characters across time and place thr...
This was an audiobook read for me with a great narrator who felt authentic. This book weaves the tales of several individuals across centuries by binding their stories using a single drop of water as a symbol. I learned so much about ancient Mesopotamia from this book as well as some of the atrocities committed in modern-day Syria, aming other things. This narrative historical fiction is a must-read for our generation, and I suspect many generations to come.
There Are Rivers in the Sky feels like a quiet conversation rather than a story that demands your attention. It unfolds slowly, almost gently, and at first you might think nothing “big” is happening—but that’s exactly the point. The book is about what flows underneath, quite literally: the hidden and underground rivers the novel keeps returning to, alongside the invisible currents of memory, loss, longing, and connection between people and places.
What stayed with me most was the way water works as an idea throughout the book, not just rivers or rain, but movement, continuity, and survival. Lives change, histories are interrupted, people are displaced, yet something keeps flowing. The novel doesn’t explain everything or try to impress with clever twists. It trusts the reader to sit with silence, fragments, and emotion.
I also really loved the descriptions of Victorian-era London—they felt vivid without being heavy, atmospheric in a way that made the city feel alive rather than decorative. At the same time, I found myself learning a lot: about the Yazidis in particular, in ways I hadn’t encountered before, and about Assyria and its layered history. That combination of storytelling and quiet learning felt very natural, never forced.
It’s not a loud book. It won’t suit readers who want fast pacing or clear answers. But if you like stories that feel almost poetic, that blur time and geography, and that leave space for reflection, this one stays with you long after you finish it. The characters connected through a drop of water take you with them like a river. It made me slow down and I think that’s one of its quiet strengths.
A bloated bladder of overflourished nonsense which obscures - and repels the reader - from the fascinating subjects it covers. I was so happy when it was over.
There are three main characters in this book. Arthur, a young boy growing up in poverty in 1840s England, who eventually comes to work at a printer's shop; Narin, a Yazidi girl who is slowly losing her hearing; and Zaleekhah, who is reeling from a bad marriage. The writing is a bit too-flowery for my taste, however the descriptions of the sights and sounds of 1840s London is well done. Arthur is a compelling character and my main focus in the reading.
The story of the massacre of the Yazidis in 2014 is jaw-dropping. Eventually all their stories intersect, but it is a sad tale. Well written, but a bit depressing. I didn't get the water motif.
The story of the massacre of the Yazidis in 2014 is jaw-dropping. Eventually all their stories intersect, but it is a sad tale. Well written, but a bit depressing. I didn't get the water motif.
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