“There Are Rivers in the Sky” is a mesmerizing novel by Elif Shafak that weaves together three distinct narratives across different time periods, connected by a single droplet of water. The book follows three main characters: Arthur Smyth, a brilliant London researcher in the 1840s; Narin, a young Yazidi girl in 2014 Turkey; and Zaleekhah, a hydrologist in 2018 London.

The book opens with a lyrical yet poignant story set in ancient Mesopotamia, whose history of Nineveh and the Assyrian Empire extends to modern-day Turkey. Shafak explores complex issues including water scarcity, global inequality, colonialism, and religious persecution.

Arthur’s story showcases his eidetic memory and his social awkwardness as he comes of age. His rise in society complicates his navigation of societal expectations, conflicting with his poor understanding of romance. During a work trip to a Mesopotamian excavation site, he forms a friendship with Leila, a chieftain’s daughter, leaving him torn between love and duty.

Narin’s narrative is beautifully told, revealing her character development through her grandmother’s eyes and stories as old as time. We learn of her inherited talent, passed down through generations, including a connection to Leila from Arthur’s timeline. This intertwining of characters’ lives adds depth to the water-themed narrative.

Zaleekhah’s coming-out story is engaging and tense, addressing topical issues. As a hydrologist in London, she confronts cultural norms personified by her doting uncle.

The novel has moments that evoke anger, but also high points that Shafak crafts masterfully, making the reader’s heart sing. “There Are Rivers in the Sky” is both moving and intellectually stimulating, seamlessly blending historical research with compelling storytelling. This book stands out as one of the year’s best reads.

Shafak is one of my favourite authors. I have never been disappointed. Her new novel relates the stories of three people living at different times in different parts of the world. They are connected by their interest in the ancient city of Nineveh. Arthur is a pauper born in London in 1840. He has an amazing memory and eventually translates the Epic of Gilgamesh.written in cuneiform on the tablets from Nineveh. When searching for a final poem from the Epic he travels to Istanbul and then Nineveh. He lives in a Yazidi village and becomes very close to the residents. Narin is a 9 year old Yazidi girl living near Nineveh in 2014, enchanted by the ancient stories her grandmother tells her. In 2018, Zaleekhah, a water scientist is living on a houseboat on the Thames and reads the history of the ancient city. Their stories are braided together with the stories of 3 great rivers, a drop of rain and some tears.

The cover and title of this stunning book are what caught my attention first. Once I read the synopsis I was hooked.
In Mesopotamia King Ashurbanipal has built a great library, but it will be destroyed. The ruins of that library, and it’s famous poem, will eventually influence history and change our understanding of the ancients. In Victorian London Arthur is born on the banks of the Thames one winter. A child with an incredible memory and ability to learn his winding road will be lead by a fascination with Nineveh. In 2014 Turkey, Narin, a ten year old Yazidi girl who is losing her hearing, will make a pilgrimage with her family to be baptized in the river. And in 2018 London Zaleekah will grapple with her study of hidden water and her own inner demons. The water remembers as it watches history unfold.
This was absolutely a slow burn, an completely worth every moment I spent reading it. I spent a fair amount of time doing some further reading on places, people and events I had never heard of and needed to know more about. This is a story of hatred and love, destruction and resilience. It was heartbreaking and inspiring. Thank you so much to @shafakelif for writing such an incredible book. And thank you to @knopfca and @netgalley for letting me have an advanced copy for review. #thereareriversinthesky was published on August 20, and I highly recommend giving it a read.
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Beautiful writing, as we can expect from Shafak - however, the 3 main characters (Arthur, Narin, and Zaleekah) of 3 different timelines just didn't land for me. The focus on connectivity of water, the translation of the Gilgamesh poem, the suffering of the Yazidi - all great elements - just didn't tie enough together to elevate beyond educational and into literary.

Thank you so much to the publisher, via NetGalley, for providing me with an arc for review.

A fantastic tale of different narratives woven together across time and place. I really enjoyed certain narratives more than others, but they all had something interesting to say. A well told tale.

Let me start by saying that the amount of research that obviously went into this story is phenomenal. It took me back to my high school days when we did a unit on Mesopotamia and took me a while to read because I had to keep stopping so I could look things up and read more about them.

Though this ambitious story is told from differing perspectives, the common thread is how important water is to life. A single drop of water plays an important role in the story, although I was hoping it would take on a character role like the tree in the Island of Missing Trees.

The lives of several characters: Arthur, Narin and Zaleekhah are intertwined with each grappling with their past, present and futures and by the Tigres and Thames Rivers. Arthur’s story, is far more interesting at the start and middle of the book rather than at the end. Narin’s story highlights the plight of the Yazidi due to significant misunderstanding of their culture and Zaleekhah’s story was the weakest of the three in my opinion, only becoming interesting towards the end.

There are so many lyrical passages that capture the atmosphere of both London and ancient Mesopotamia. The writing is really evocative and Shafak does an amazing job weaving cultural references from both the past and present. It really is great storytelling.

There are Rivers in the Sky is thought provoking and introspective as it deals with themes of identity, loneliness, belonging and the human condition. I do think there are some pacing issues and some scenes do tend to meander a little.

Overall, I was not disappointed and I’m happy about it since this was one of my most anticipated reads of 2024.

Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Random House Canada for the ARC. These thoughts are provided voluntarily.

This was a nice break from fantasy and magical realism. Thanks to her beautiful and layered prose, wisdom, compelling storytelling, and well-researched writing, Elif Shafak is definitely an auto-buy author for me.

❤️ Beautiful prose
❤️ Interesting, neurodivergent main character
❤️ Skillful exploration of themes like persecution and genocide, trauma and depression, etc.
❤️ Interesting melding of storytelling and poetry with history, myths, anecdotes, science, awareness, etc.
❌ Slightly unbalanced narratives
❌ Some historical or scientific inserts breaking the narrative flow
❌ Rushed / underwhelming ending

Trigger warnings: racism, war, genocide, slavery, trafficking, violence and torture, death, grief, murder, pandemic/epidemic, physical and psychological abuse, sexual violence and rape, suicidal thoughts, homophobia, etc.

Plot:
In the late 1800s, a poverty-stricken young man with a brilliant memory starts working for a major publisher and develops a keen interest in travel, history, and ancient languages, especially Nineveh, the fallen capital of Assyria. In 2014 Turkey, a ten-year-old Yazidi girl with a rare disorder is on her way to a sacred Iraqi temple with her father and grandmother when a genocide is launched against the Yazidi community. In 2018 London, a newly divorced hydrologist planning to take her own life finds a curious book about her homeland that will change everything.

Shafak brilliantly interwove historical and contemporary elements, science and culture, advocacy, and more, without neglecting the plot. I was drawn in rather quickly and couldn’t wait to see how the three storylines would connect. However, I found that the balance between the storylines wasn’t perfectly on point, with much more emphasis on Arthur (he was my favourite, but still). The tie between the two contemporary storylines was heart wrenching, but resolved too quickly. I feel like this plot twist would have been more impactful with more exploration, but the ending was a little rushed and left some questions unanswered.

Characters:
Arthur was a great main character: neurodivergent, flawed, endearing, interesting. I loved both the child and adult versions. I also loved how all three main characters had very distinctive backgrounds and storylines. However, I would have liked to explore Narin’s narrative more, and for Zaleekhah’s character to be more fleshed out.

Writing:
Soft but intense, layered and poetic. I just love it. But while I absolutely loved how the scientific and historical information was woven in throughout the novel, I felt like there were some instances where it broke the narrative flow.

Note: No one does anthropomorphism like Elif Shafak! After the mesmerising, sentient fig in The Island of Missing Trees, we now follow semi-sentient water particles which remanifests across time and place.

This is the best book I have ever read. I am still having palpitations thinking about it. I have never been so moved, nor learned so much from a novel.

We open in ancient Mesopotamia – in the city of Nineveh – where a raindrop falls on King Ashurbanipal’s head. We know him as the King responsible for the curation of one of the finest libraries in the world. He receives news of a betrayal and punishes the alleged perpetrator (his old tutor) in the most unspeakable of ways. Here, at the beginning of the book, we’re shown one of the main mantras the novel: that people have two rivers in them: good and bad.

From there, we’re led through the stories of Arthur, in Victorian London, Narin in Turkey in 2014 in the town Hasankeyf which is soon to be flooded, and Zaleekah, a contemporary water scientist in London. We’re told that water and its memory connects all of the stories, but there’s more to it than that: as the novel progresses, we learn that the three characters are connected in other ways – be it their ancestors or artefacts, a book, or even thoughts and actions.

I read this book over two days and the emotional and intellectual journey it took me on is nothing short of astonishing: for the first half of the book, the most prominent character (for me) was Arthur. From the slums of London, his experience of poverty, the endless hunger he feels, the cruelty he receives is devastating. He is blessed with an extraordinary memory, so when he lands a job at a publishers and then the British Museum to research Gilgamesh tablets, I was rooting for him. One of the things Elif Shafak has always done more than any author is to create an uncanny familiarity surrounding her characters, even just those who exist as vignettes or as minor episodes: Arthur’s reaction to a mentor dying was terrible and beautiful. I cried (that was the second time…and there were more tears).

The first half of the book is best described as fascinating and I just felt I was getting comfortable with the three characters. There are hints and foreshadowings throughout – tiny nods here and there to how they’re connected and where the plot’s ebbing.

The final part of the book, however, is devastating and never gratuitous. The horrors of ISIS are shown with unflinching brutality, which needed to be done. I was really pleased that Shafak didn’t shy away from showing the sheer inhumanity what must be some of the world’s most horrific acts. Nobody could read these scenes and not be irrevocably changed.

This book spans millennia yet never feels overly capacious. I was left at the end was an idea that, like rivers, the world keeps existing and everything is really up to us – whether we continue to chase futile violence, hate, greed. There’s a line about the ancient Mesopotamian cuneiform text: ‘If the spoken word is a trick of the gods, the written word is a triumph of humans’ and I think this sums up a main message: that humans can triumph with what we decide to leave or do on this planet, but we need to write the right sort of stories for ourselves.

Completely brilliant. Thank you to the author for writing this.