One rain drop connects four people - King Ashurbanipal from the city of Ninevah, a poor boy named Arthur from London in 1852, Narin a Yazidi girl from Turkey in 2014, and a water scientist Zaleekhah from London in 2018. The story unfolds with viewpoints from each character that gradually reveal their myriad of connections to each other. The one uniting force of them all is the emphasis on water and Mesopotamian culture.

The prose and descriptions in this book are vivid and beautiful. This book reminded me a lot of Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr because of the various character viewpoints across history. Reading descriptions of what ISIS did to the Yazidi people in 2014 was heartwrenching. I appreciated the detailed attention to history across all the time periods. At the end of the book, you're still left with some questions which will likely leave me thinking about this book for some time.

What a wonderful story. I was captivated by the storylines all throughout the novel. I loved the messages, symbolism, and rich history of the all the rivers involved. The characters were very well developed and I felt such empathy for their circumstances. I couldn’t stop reading because I was rooting for all of them. It was a wonderful read!!

Writing: 4.5/5 Characters: 5/5 Plot: 3.5/5

A long and highly complex book following three elaborate storylines, all influenced in some way by the Epic of Gilgamesh — the epic Babylonian poem from about 2000 BC. Arthur Smythe — also known as King Arthur of the Sewers and Slum — is born into abject poverty but has an extraordinarily keen mind, an eidetic memory, and an absorbing passion for the artifacts in the British Museum. His story runs from his birth in 1840 to his death 36 years later in Iraq. Zaleekhah is a passionate researcher who focuses on the study and conservation of the Earth’s water in 2018 — focused on theories that would earn her derision were she to try to publish. She is also is pulled in to a fascination with the region through her own Iraqi heritage and feels a despair at the state of the Earth, both politically and environmentally. Narin is a nine-year old Yazidi girl whose village is to be subsumed from flood waters once a new, large dam is completed. A trip to Iraq in 2014 before they must leave the area exposes her to the cruelty of ISIS. Woven throughout the story are themes and entangled details about Mesopotamian history, antiquity looting, modern ISIS, grand scale pollution, language processing and the underpinnings of water throughout.

Shafak’s brain is many orders of magnitude more erudite and complex than mine. The way she can pull together an apparently disjointed collection of data points, commentary, and occurrences and create an interconnected narrative of great scope is inspiring. Her facility with language is impressive — she has a lyrical style that nevertheless manages to convey real content. An example of a one sentence physical description that manages to combine visual depiction, origin, and impact: “… neither grey nor white, the air is a soupy ochre that glows green in places. Particles of soot and ash float above, as domestic coal fires and factory chimneys belch sulfur-laden smoke, clogging the lungs of Londoners, breath by breath.”

I have mixed feelings about how much I enjoyed reading this book. I loved all the detail — giving great depth to so many aspects of the world and bringing so many pieces of information — that could have easily remained hidden — to the surface. These days it feels like we have access to so much information, we are forced to have strong opinions based on a very shallow understanding of the topic, so I appreciated the deep dives on … everything. I loved all the unusual minutiae that came into the story — underground lost rivers, Ashurbanipal’s lost library, a tattooist who works only in cuneiform. However, a real sense of impending doom suffused the pages, and that only got worse at the story went on. It’s hard not to feel as though the world were hopelessly hurtling towards a bad end, with genocidal maniacs, environmental disasters, and a generous helping of greed, power-hunger, cruelty, cynicism, and general disregard pervading the text. I freely acknowledge that the world has many, many, problems, but I prefer to read about the many ways we continue to try to improve the many problems and not to succumb to melancholy and hand wringing. I also had a real problem with the ethical dilemma presented at the end. I felt the character’s resolution (clearly representing the author’s opinion) was surprisingly poorly thought out given the depths of her big picture thinking through the rest of the book.

So — if you can read for the history, the beautiful prose, the increased awareness of the interconnectedness of the Earth and the people running mad upon it, you will probably love this book. If your mood is one that is highly influenced by what you’re reading, you might want to pop a Prozac or two before diving in.

This novel will easily be my favorite novel of this year. My introduction to Elif Shafak was through the book "The Island of Missing Trees'. I eagerly dove into her previous works as well. I will say that this novel far surpasses those previous works. In There Are Rivers in the Sky, Shafak weaves together a gorgeous tapestry of stories all linked by a single drop of water.

The story begins in ancient Mesopotamia where a single raindrop lands on the head of ruler Ashurbanipal. He has curated a library which contains lapis lazuli tablets containing the Epic of Gilgamesh. Ashurbanipal prides himself on being a learned man, but he is in fact a cruel and heartless ruler.

The story next links our next character through a snowflake landing on a newborn who was just born to his mudlarker mother beside the River Thames. This child was named King Arthur of the Sewers an Slums. in 1800's London. This was a character I just fell in love with. If you read Barbara Kinsolver's Demon Copperhead and had your heart twisted by Demon Copperhead, you will equally fall in love with the character of King Arthur. Arthur worked as a child as an apprentice to a publisher and taught himself ancient cuneiform. I don't want to give anymore of his story away, as you are in for an epic adventure.

From that same drop of water we are also introduced to Narin, a young Yazidi girl traveling to the Tigris River for her baptism. We are also introduced to Zaleekhah, a hydrologist living on a houseboat on the River Thames.

Shafak's writing is lyrical and spell-bounding. Her storytelling ability is simply amazing. I can not imagine the sheer amount of research that went into this novel. Shafak manages to tie these characters together by the simplest of objects which was very inventive.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an advance copy of this novel.

A drop of water falls from the sky, landing on a king, so begins this story of ancient times, and the years that follow. The drop follows the boy’s life as a newborn baby, born into poverty, who becomes a young boy who lives in poverty, dismissed by others for the way he lives, dismissed by his father who mocks him for the things that interest him, dismissed by his classmates and teacher.

As time passes, he will find a way to prove to himself, if not to the others who have dismissed him so easily, that poverty does not mean his brain is inferior, or that he is inferior. He has yet to realize that he has a gift, his ability to remember events, dates, and just and when he is given a chance at his first job at a publishing company, it opens yet another door for him. A chance for a job at the British Museum, which is when he begins to realize that he has a gift that will help him navigate the future.

This is such a beautifully written story that is shared over different eras, with water being the unchanging connection. There are also moments of hardships, loss, and cruelty, but there is also love.


Pub Date: 20 Aug 2024


Many thanks for the ARC provided by Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor/Knopf

There Are Rivers in the Sky tells the tale of several different people who share a common thread.

While the premise of this book, water having the memory of all it has seen, was very interesting to me as a storytelling device, this story fell a bit flat for me. I felt somewhat overwhelmed by the amount of point of views and the detail of their stories. It felt hard to connect to any character because I was being told so much. I enjoyed the concept for the most part, but felt I would have enjoyed it more with fewer characters and point of views.

Elif does it again ! She is an autobuy author for me and this book did not disappoint .
Thank you for the Arc .

Elif Shafak is a beautiful writer. Her stories turn a black and white page into a rainbow of delicious text. I frequently reread passages to get the full impact. This is not a page turner…savor it. Nisaba, the goddess of storytelling, would be proud.

We begin with a drop of water in ancient Mesopotamia, flow to the River Thames (1840) and then by the River Tigris (2014.)

The metaphors are endless and Google was my friend to investigate further. The highest compliment I can give an author is she left me wanting more.

“May life be kind to you…and when it is not, may you emerge stronger.”

This is my first book by Elif Shafak, and her mastery of historical fiction is astounding. She brilliantly weaves three timelines together as one without favoring one character over another. Everyone and everything is related - and this story shows how none of that should ever be disregarded.

A drop of water falls onto the head of an ancient Mesopotamian king who is about to engage in an act of incredible cruelty. And that drop of water knows fear, and it remembers.

It will be there when a poor but brilliant boy is born on the sewage-filled banks of the Thames in 1840 and grows up to investigate that ancient civilization along the Tigris.

And it will be there on both rivers in the 21st century as a teenager and a research scientist come to terms with their changing worlds.

There is so much to the many layers of this book. At first it seems the disparate stories don't connect but they do, all with water being the constant running through the book.

This is an absolutely fantastic book, beautifully written, filled with well-fleshed out characters. Each has dealt with so much pain and heartache and yet each also finds fulfillment and joy. It was at times really difficult to read because the author doesn't shy away from the cruelty in the worlds of each character. But they each persevere, as does the water,
o ten despite our actions.

I don’t know the last time I’ve read a narrative so beautiful. I started reading her works a few years ago with The Architect’s Apprentice and moved through her other books. I have loved them all. It isn’t just her flawless prose. Somehow, she weaves seemingly disparate stories into a perfect tapestry.

This book starts in ancient Mesopotamia and centers around tablets that form The Epic of Gilgamesh. From there, we learn of the Yazidi people, who are considered “devil worshippers” by others in the region. Specifically, we meet a 9-year-old girl named Narin in 2014, who is going deaf. She is Yazidi and lives in Turkey. Her beloved grandmother is her link to her people’s past and an excellent storyteller.

Much of the narrative focuses on King Arthur of the Sewers and Slums, who is born in poverty to a mudlarker, people who scour the banks of the River Thames for valuables. He lives in the mid-1800s and is a fascinating character. He has a didactic memory and can recall the events of any date, a skill that gets him noticed by curators at the British Museum. Through his studies, he falls in love with Mesopotamia and The Epic of Gilgamesh, which paves the way for his future.

There is also a hydrologist named Zaleekah. Recently divorced in 2018, she moves onto a houseboat where a new life takes shape. She is an orphan whose wealthy uncle took her in as a child. Her association with the history of the book seems vague for a time. But then she is folded into the sweeping epic.

The main character of the story is water, and it is poured and sprinkled on every page in both beautiful drops and raging floods. The talent required to make water a character is beyond my scope. But somehow, Shafak brings water to life.

This is another of her books that demands to be read and savored. I had to process what I’d read for several days before I could write this review. Although I received an advanced reader copy, I will buy it when it comes out and read it again. I can’t recommend it enough.

"And if we could only see the world through a baby's eyes, gazing up with innocent wonder, we could watch the rivers in the sky. Mighty rivers that never cease to flow."


This was such a beautiful book in the way that it showed the full gamut of human emotions from heartbreaking to hopeful to ecstatically happy. It's clearly meticulously researched and I loved the way that water was a character throughout the story. Because water unites us all, the story ranges across 3 storlines in different eras that are connected by the Thames and Tigris rivers. This structure was beautiful but also sometimes difficult to follow. It did drag for me in a few places where I struggled to understand how the threads would fit together, but Shafak is so good at pulling all the threads together for you eventually.

I'll definitely be picking up more books by this author.

A huge thank you to the author and the publisher for providing an e-ARC via Netgalley. This does not affect my opinion regarding the book.

This was a beautiful journey, woven deftly between multiple places and times. I learned more than I could have ever expected of history, emotions, connection and politics in this story connecting people throughout places and lifetimes.

This was an amazing intricately interwoven story - essentially three storyline strands across the 19th and 21st centuries that are anchored by the Tigris and Thames rivers. A single drop of water that dates back to olden times - to King Ashurbhanipal of Mesopotamia in the ancient city of Nineveh - connects them all forever. Elif Shafak’s books are always laden with meticulous research and I think she’s outdone herself in this one! I have made notes to go back to several references to do research - whether it’s history, the Yazidi people, literature. I enjoyed each storyline strand, my favorite was Narin and her grandmother. The one I was a bit skeptical about was the Arthur storyline. I questioned his career trajectory a bit, despite his photographic memory, but I still enjoyed it immensely and was blown away by the complex research required for Arthur’s life story. And it was a relief that Zaleekhah’s initial mental state eases and she finds purpose, notwithstanding the burden she carries. The book unfolds layer by layer through each storyline strand, so be warned that readers may get a bit impatient like I did - as I was trying to figure out how all the pieces fit together…and they definitely did. Overall, I very much enjoyed the book and Elif Shafak has done it again - given us another book laden with tough themes, complex issues, a bit of magical realism, and beautiful language which conveys so much. There’s so much to think about and ruminate long after the last page is turned, and that’s definitely the hallmark of a great read. I know I’ll be re-reading this book again and again to parse out yet more insights and connections and will be doing research on many of the references interspersed throughout the book. Because of all this and more, I highly recommend this book and gave it 5 stars. Many thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this book.

History and drama in multiple plot lines slowly merging and telling one greater story, Elif Shafak takes us on a journey through time as mysteries of the past affect the future.

This was sad and heartbreaking and beautiful and hopeful and I loved the water analogy and how everything, just like water, connects at the end before the cycle starts all over again.

The amount of research that’s gone into this book is impressive!

At times, I felt like I was just pushing through, waiting for things to connect and I feel like the characters could’ve benefited from a bit more depth BUT, I thoroughly enjoyed the reading experience and will definitely recommend :D

This author is amazing. Her writing is so beautiful. She manages to make a drop of water seem profound. That is an incredible skill.

This book centers around water. There is the Tigris and the Thames. There is a water scientist. There is the son of a mudlark. There is a girl, part of a marginalized population, who is about to lose her home due to a dam project. And those are just the major players. The story is told across multiple timelines.

I was drawn right into this from the beginning. I highly recommend it. I would recommend anything by this author.

I don't think I even have a choice but to give the book five stars?

I mean the amount of research and thought put into this is almost unbelievable. I would believe it though if an expose revealed that it was actually a team of writers who came up with this after working nonstop for approximately five years straight only subsisting on Ramon noodles (or insert it's equivalent) and taking direction from the fever dreams of this author, which they had to translate from the ancient text scribbled onto ancient clay as described here. That's the depth of such a project and boy this book must have taken pure dedication to finish.

It's one of those books that I cannot even attempt to summarize because it won't make any sense at all. It simply just works. Was it an easy and jolly story? No. Did I die a little inside as I gave myself a pep talk each time I picked it up? Yes. I mean it felt part science textbook mixed with an epic, emotional tale filled with passion and devastating loss. What a combo. I had to work for every page, maybe every sentence, to appreciate it's meaning in the grander scale of this book. I loved every POV character and I will miss them. That all being said, the book as I've described here is not going to be for everyone.

I received an e-arc from Netgalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to Net Galley and Knopf Publishing for an early copy of There Are Rivers in the Sky by Elif Shafak

From the opening paragraphs to the Journey of a Drop of Water at the conclusion of this overarching and magnificent achievement, author Elif Shafak has succeeded in giving readers an unforgettable sense of times, places and characters united by events in ancient Nineveh that define their lives. At the center of the story is the creation of the poem Epic of Gilgamesh and its discovery among ancient ruins. Finding someone to decipher the writing will be paramount and once completed will be of great importance not only to the people of the Middle East but to all civilization.

Three main characters intertwine as each is affected by the drop of water that unites them: Arthur, born along the Thames River in the 1840s to a destitute mother, Narin a young Middle Eastern girl slowly going deaf whose family wish to take her to the Tigris River for baptism amidst growing ISIS violence and Zaleekhah who continues to be traumatized by the accidental drowning of her parents.

Author Elif Shafak has included history, politics, environment, family, disease and the desire to find and retain meaning in lives that seek truth and happiness.

When dealing with artifacts of the past, what is there ultimate resting place? Should they remain in the country of origin, even if the country is poor with little enticement for visitors? Should the items be on display in the great museums of the world, not native to the country but able to be seen by millions? Should the artifacts be sold to private collectors to generate revenue?

Readers of There Are Rivers in the Sky will be driven to read Shafak's earlier works due to her skill as an advocate for all cultures and the preservation of antiquities

Thank you #Knopf and #NetGalley for providing this #ARC Advance Reading Copy. Expected publication date is August 20, 2024 • 5 Stars

I am a huge fan of Elif Shafak’s novels, and have read most of what she has written. I think that this book, There Are Rivers in the Sky, is, hands-down, her best work to date. I don’t know how she can top herself after this, but I am anxiously awaiting.

This novel spans centuries, continents, and cultures, entwining three main characters through the themes of rivers, rain, and waterdrops. The narrative is set along the Tigris and the Thames rivers, with characters including an extraordinary child born in Victorian London, a Yazidi girl in 2014 Turkey, and a hydrologist in 2018 London. The book explores the interconnectedness of these characters and their relationship with the natural world, particularly the rivers that flow through their lives. The story is rich with historical and cultural references, weaving a tale that transcends time and space.

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