About the book

This is the story of one lost poem, two great rivers, and three remarkable lives – all connected by a single drop of water.

In the ruins of Nineveh, that ancient city of Mesopotamia, there lies hidden in the sand fragments of a long-forgotten poem, the Epic of Gilgamesh.

In Victorian London, an extraordinary child is born at the edge of the dirt-black Thames. When his brilliant memory earns him a spot as an apprentice at a printing press, the world opens up far beyond the slums and across the seas.

In 2014 Turkey, Narin, a Yazidi girl living by the River Tigris, waits to be baptised. The ceremony is cruelly interrupted, and soon she and her grandmother must journey across war-torn lands in the hope of reaching the sacred valley of their people.

In 2018 London, broken-hearted Zaleekhah, a hydrologist, moves to a houseboat on the Thames to escape the wreckage of her marriage – until an unexpected connection to her homeland changes everything.

A dazzling feat of storytelling from one of the greatest writers of our time that spans centuries, continents and cultures, entwined by rivers, rains, and waterdrops. 

Why we love it

Water: approximately 71% of the earth is covered in it and around 50-70% of our body is made up of it. Put simply, humanity can't exist without it.

And remember those diagrams we studied in school about the water cycle? Water falls as rain and then it evaporates, returning to the sky where it condenses or crystallises only to fall again to earth in a never-ending cycle.

That means that all the water that's ever existed, since the beginning of time, still flows through our world today, linking us to every living thing that's ever been.

And now imagine this...what if water remembers?

That's the premise of this remarkable book by Elif Shafak - that a single droplet of water can form a connection that spans from ancient Mesopotamia to Victorian London and into the modern day world. I find that idea, that concept, to be so powerful. 

An emotionally-charged, character-driven novel, There Are Rivers In The Sky follows the story of three different characters at different points in time - Arthur, Narin and Zaleekhah - all linked by the same particles of water that fell on King Ashurbanipal of Nineveh, thousands of years ago.

I often find that with a multi-perspective, multi-timeline story, there's usually one character I connect with most and I'll rush through chapters about the others just to get back to my favourite storyline. But that really wasn’t the case with this book where all three stories and timelines were equally engrossing.

Add to that evocative descriptions of the Thames and the Tigris, rich historical detail and storytelling that never loses momentum and the end result is a uniquely unforgettable story. 

This is an immersive, intelligent and poignant novel by an exceptionally talented writer, with so much relevance for the world today. Highly recommended!