When I was teaching the water cycle to elementary students we said things like a drop of water could be from a glass of water George Washington drank. This book expands wonderfully on the idea that water travels the world and we should appreciate it, while describing cultures in the Mideast, and helping us recognize the deep connection of climate change to all we hold dear. A new dam sounds like good progress until we realize how difficult it is for a population to relocate, and how emotionally costly are the disruptions to their lives. This text makes it painfully clear while lifting our awareness of beautiful cultures, especially the Yazidis (which helped me understand them). The pain people have to endure, the sufferings of the Earth, and ties between generations are brought to life with the impressive writing skills of the author. Many generic human truths applicable to any person anywhere are included. I preordered a book to enable highlighting when I reread There Are Rivers in the Sky, as I felt many statements should not be forgotten post reading. This is an important book to reread and savor.

I have only read one previous work from the author and was eagerly looking forward to this one. Glad to say that this one does not disappoint.

While the trope of storylines from different eras has been done many times before, it's the beautiful writing that makes this work stand apart. Very engaging storyline with very well developed characters

My thanks for the ARC. It was a story that follows water through three people who are connected by waters from the Tigris. It seemed reminiscent of Cloud Atlas. The stories are each engaging and have drama in each one.

I received a free e-arc of this book through Netgalley. I wasn't sure if I was going to like it at first, but then it haunted me and was impossible to put down. Arthur, Narin and Zaleekah are all at once very diverse and also the same POV as we explore their relationship to water in this book which brings us through the water cycle of how a single drop of water keeps moving through time. The cruelty of humans to each other in this book is quite devastating and it's hard to believe that it still occurs in the world even today as people who think they are different from each other kill and hurt one another. A book that will stay with me.

Great retelling. Very imaginative and interesting. Thanks to Netgalley for the opportunity to read this book

I’ve read several of Elif Shafak’s books and have greatly enjoyed them:
….”The Island of the Missing Trees”
…..”The Forty Rules of Love”
“10 Minutes 38 Seconds in this Strange World”
…..”Three Daughters of Eve”
…..”The Architect’s Apprentice”
and….
…..”The Bastard of Istanbul”

“There are Rivers in the Sky” is a beautiful book in its thrilling complexity of design and poetic prose. It’s also a weighty novel…..coiling around centuries, history, and collectively a drop of water…..
“Water remembers. It’s humans who forget”.
There are irresistible characters, and an intriguing supporting cast.
There are two highly imaginative rivers,
The largest and wealthiest city,
There is a significant ancient poem,
Experiences of cultures, streams, gardens and other aromatic plants, family power, betrayal, heritage, morality, memories of love and loss….
…..with strength and understandings linked by the “Epic of Gilgamesh.

Elif Shafak created a wholly original, marvelous tapestry. There are delights - surprises - and plenty of touching paths ….
A few times, it feels like a labored love rather than an inspired one….being an incredible ambitious novel.
It starts out really well— shows some few signs of huff and puffs towards the middle …..but then winds up brilliantly.

There are three main narrative strands:
….1840 London > we meet Arthur (he has a brilliant mind). He was born beside the stinking sewage-filled River Thames. His father was an alcoholic. His mother was mentally ill.

….2014 Turkey > we meet Narin….a ten-year-old Yazhidi girl who is diagnosed with a rare disorder that will cause her to go deaf, but before it happens, her mother is determined to baptize her in a sacred rock temple….time is running out due to the rising presents of ISIS destruction of the families, ancestral lands along the Tigris.

….2018 London > Zaleekah, a hydrologist. She is newly divorced and moves into a houseboat on the Thames to escape her husband.

The characters in each of these strands are rich, colorful, and well developed.
Emotional doors are open — both painful and successful ones.
Even with the few times of having to take breaks with my reading…. needing time to think and contemplate, there is absolutely no denying Shafak is a stunning writer/storyteller….and this novel is a grand achievement.

Elif Shafak’s writing gorgeously humane - entertaining- and intelligent.

A few sample excerpts:
“The library is King Ashurbanipal’s proudest creation. His lifetime ambition— more than his military conquests and political victories.
The library will be his legacy for future generations”.,

“The king knows that in order to dominate other cultures, you must capture not only their lands, crops and assets but also their collective imagination, their shared memories”.

“This afternoon, as Ashurbanipal - the leader of the wealthiest empire in the world, the last of the great rulers of the kingdom of Assyria, the third - born son of Esarhaddon but the chosen heir to the throne and his father’s favourite, the patron and founds of a magnificent library that will change the course of history - sets fire to his erstwhile teacher, and burns his childhood memories along with him, the raindrop remains ensconced inside the king’s hair. Alone, small and terrified, it does not dare to move. It will never forget what it has witnessed today. It has been changed - forever. Even after centuries have passed, a trace of this moment will remain embedded in its elemental form”.

“As ripples of heat rise into the air, the raindrop will slowly evaporate. But it won’t disappear. Sooner or later, that tiny translucent bead of water will ascend back to the blue skies. Once there, it will bite its time, waiting to return to this troubled earth
again . . . “.

“Water is both the harbinger of life and the messenger of death”.

4.5 rating up.