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There Are Rivers in the Sky

A novel

Author Elif Shafak
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Large Print (Large Print - Tradepaper)
$32.00 US
| $42.00 CAN
Diversified | Random House Large Print
On sale Aug 27, 2024 | 704 Pages | 9798217014378
Grades 9-12 + AP/IB
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Sweeping across centuries, and stretching from Mesopotamia to London, this enchanting new novel by a Booker Prize finalist conjures a trio of characters living in the shadow of one of the greatest epic poems of all time.

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: Ninveveh and Its Remains.

In 2014 Turkey, Narin, a ten-year-old Yazhidi 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.”
"An odyssey, an epic, a lament, and a tale of redemption, There Are Rivers in the Sky is a clarion call to honor the elemental forces that shape our memories, our histories, and our world. In short, a masterpiece."—Ruth Ozeki, author of The Book of Form and Emptiness

"There Are Rivers in the Sky explodes into a roaring journey through ecology and memory… genuinely moving.”—The New York Times Book Review

"Think Cloud Atlas, but with a single drop of water connecting all the stories."—Parade Magazine

"Shafak weaves together a dazzling feat of storytelling that explores the pain of exile and the power of human resilience."—Oprah Daily

"Flows like rivers from ancient Nineveh to present-day London with characters of the distant past as bright and vivid as those of today.” —Philippa Gregory, author of The Other Boleyn Girl

"Elif Shafak discovers the epic in the tiny, the global in the local, the love in the loss, the history in the momentary. An extraordinary novel, fresh and cleansing, like the rain bouncing off the metal roof of our lives.” —Colum McCann, author of Let the Great World Spin

"A brilliant, unforgettable novel, which raises big ideas of 'who owns the past' with nuance and complexity…. both natural and wonderfully unexpected." —Mary Beard, author of SPQR

"From its bravura opening through to its final pages, There Are Rivers in the Sky is a dazzling achievement. Shafak’s imagination is a wonder."—Katie Kitamura, author of Intimacies

"Literature on a grand scale, mythic and timeless." —Nadifa Mohamed, author of The Fortune Men

"There's an elegance to Shafak's storytelling that always draws me, but it is her grit and substance that held me to the last page. Wonderful." —Bonnie Garmus, author of Lessons in Chemistry

"Elif Shafak is a unique and powerful voice in world literature." —Ian McEwan, author of Atonement

"Wide-ranging, eloquent and lavishly detailed, There Are Rivers in the Sky expertly draws its various narratives to a powerful climax." —Abdulrazak Gurnah, author of Afterlives

"Elif Shafak's beautiful and moving new novel bears the reader along on its marvelous currents…. as the fate of a single drop of water weaves an intricate tapestry of love and loss."—Robert MacFarlane, author of Underland

"Gloriously expansive and intellectually rich.... a magnificent achievement."— The Spectator (UK)

"Spellbinding.... Like water itself, There Are Rivers in the Sky seeps into the cracks and crevasses of our humanity, unlocking a sense of wonder."— BookPage, starred review*

"A multi-layered marvel.... I turned the pages hungrily, carried by Shafak’s energetic prose.... As ever, Shafak did not disappoint."—Max Liu, I Paper

“This is a love song to the keepers of our stories and histories....Elif Shafak is one of them—a master storyteller whose prose thrums with such gorgeous details and propulsive spirit, flowing with a keen-eyed wisdom that only she could conjure. I came away feeling restored."—Safiya Sinclair, author of How to Say Babylon

"A book that is astonishing, ingenious and beautiful. A modern classic. Elif Shafak is one of the great writers of our time."—Peter Frankopan, author of The Earth Transformed

"Elif Shafak approaches the world with grace, lyricism, and courage…. Her words and works—compelling and provocative—leave us in a space of light, a clearing from where we can see this world anew. "—Viet Thanh Nguyen, author of The Sympathizer

"Intricate, exhilarating storytelling that is a poetic reminder of how connected we are to one another and to the past."—Tracy Chevalier, author of Girl With a Pearl Earring
© Ferhat Elik
ELIF SHAFAK is an award-winning British-Turkish author of a dozen novels, including The Island of Missing Trees, which was short-listed for the Costa Novel Award, and 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World, which was short-listed for the Booker Prize. Her work has been translated into fifty-six languages. She holds a PhD in political science and has taught at universities in Turkey, the United States and the United Kingdom. She lives in London and is an honorary fellow at Oxford University. View titles by Elif Shafak

Discussion Guide for There Are Rivers in the Sky

Provides questions, discussion topics, suggested reading lists, introductions and/or author Q&As, which are intended to enhance reading groups’ experiences.

(Please note: the guide displayed here is the most recently uploaded version; while unlikely, any page citation discrepancies between the guide and book is likely due to pagination differences between a book’s different formats.)

Read More

About

Sweeping across centuries, and stretching from Mesopotamia to London, this enchanting new novel by a Booker Prize finalist conjures a trio of characters living in the shadow of one of the greatest epic poems of all time.

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: Ninveveh and Its Remains.

In 2014 Turkey, Narin, a ten-year-old Yazhidi 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.”

Reviews

"An odyssey, an epic, a lament, and a tale of redemption, There Are Rivers in the Sky is a clarion call to honor the elemental forces that shape our memories, our histories, and our world. In short, a masterpiece."—Ruth Ozeki, author of The Book of Form and Emptiness

"There Are Rivers in the Sky explodes into a roaring journey through ecology and memory… genuinely moving.”—The New York Times Book Review

"Think Cloud Atlas, but with a single drop of water connecting all the stories."—Parade Magazine

"Shafak weaves together a dazzling feat of storytelling that explores the pain of exile and the power of human resilience."—Oprah Daily

"Flows like rivers from ancient Nineveh to present-day London with characters of the distant past as bright and vivid as those of today.” —Philippa Gregory, author of The Other Boleyn Girl

"Elif Shafak discovers the epic in the tiny, the global in the local, the love in the loss, the history in the momentary. An extraordinary novel, fresh and cleansing, like the rain bouncing off the metal roof of our lives.” —Colum McCann, author of Let the Great World Spin

"A brilliant, unforgettable novel, which raises big ideas of 'who owns the past' with nuance and complexity…. both natural and wonderfully unexpected." —Mary Beard, author of SPQR

"From its bravura opening through to its final pages, There Are Rivers in the Sky is a dazzling achievement. Shafak’s imagination is a wonder."—Katie Kitamura, author of Intimacies

"Literature on a grand scale, mythic and timeless." —Nadifa Mohamed, author of The Fortune Men

"There's an elegance to Shafak's storytelling that always draws me, but it is her grit and substance that held me to the last page. Wonderful." —Bonnie Garmus, author of Lessons in Chemistry

"Elif Shafak is a unique and powerful voice in world literature." —Ian McEwan, author of Atonement

"Wide-ranging, eloquent and lavishly detailed, There Are Rivers in the Sky expertly draws its various narratives to a powerful climax." —Abdulrazak Gurnah, author of Afterlives

"Elif Shafak's beautiful and moving new novel bears the reader along on its marvelous currents…. as the fate of a single drop of water weaves an intricate tapestry of love and loss."—Robert MacFarlane, author of Underland

"Gloriously expansive and intellectually rich.... a magnificent achievement."— The Spectator (UK)

"Spellbinding.... Like water itself, There Are Rivers in the Sky seeps into the cracks and crevasses of our humanity, unlocking a sense of wonder."— BookPage, starred review*

"A multi-layered marvel.... I turned the pages hungrily, carried by Shafak’s energetic prose.... As ever, Shafak did not disappoint."—Max Liu, I Paper

“This is a love song to the keepers of our stories and histories....Elif Shafak is one of them—a master storyteller whose prose thrums with such gorgeous details and propulsive spirit, flowing with a keen-eyed wisdom that only she could conjure. I came away feeling restored."—Safiya Sinclair, author of How to Say Babylon

"A book that is astonishing, ingenious and beautiful. A modern classic. Elif Shafak is one of the great writers of our time."—Peter Frankopan, author of The Earth Transformed

"Elif Shafak approaches the world with grace, lyricism, and courage…. Her words and works—compelling and provocative—leave us in a space of light, a clearing from where we can see this world anew. "—Viet Thanh Nguyen, author of The Sympathizer

"Intricate, exhilarating storytelling that is a poetic reminder of how connected we are to one another and to the past."—Tracy Chevalier, author of Girl With a Pearl Earring

Author

© Ferhat Elik
ELIF SHAFAK is an award-winning British-Turkish author of a dozen novels, including The Island of Missing Trees, which was short-listed for the Costa Novel Award, and 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World, which was short-listed for the Booker Prize. Her work has been translated into fifty-six languages. She holds a PhD in political science and has taught at universities in Turkey, the United States and the United Kingdom. She lives in London and is an honorary fellow at Oxford University. View titles by Elif Shafak

Guides

Discussion Guide for There Are Rivers in the Sky

Provides questions, discussion topics, suggested reading lists, introductions and/or author Q&As, which are intended to enhance reading groups’ experiences.

(Please note: the guide displayed here is the most recently uploaded version; while unlikely, any page citation discrepancies between the guide and book is likely due to pagination differences between a book’s different formats.)

Read More

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Other Books by this Author

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