There Are Rivers in the Sky by Elif Shafak [Book Review]

When a book takes you on the ultimate journey

Happy Publication Day to There Are Rivers in the Sky by Elif Shafak!

I had such a wonderful experience reading this book. It is one I will not likely forget. I am so happy to have been sent an advanced copy of this book from Knopf.

The novel is expansive going between the Tigris and Thames rivers, from Mesopotamia to London and back again. We’re first introduced to the tyrannical Assyrian king Ashurbanipal who was deeply connected to the “The Epic of Gilgamesh” poem. Then from a single raindrop, the storm comes and devastates the land.

Someday he will also be remembered and renowned as ‘The Librarian King’, ‘The Educated Monarch’, ‘The Erudite Ruler of Mesopotamia’ - titles that will make people forget that whilst hemay have been highly learned and cultured, he was no less cruel than his predecessors.

I also must note that the opening of this book tells about that single raindrop and I have never read something so exquisite about something so simple.

The story follows three main protagonists. Arthur Amyth (King Arthur of the Sewers and Slums) was born in London in the 1840s. As described in the novel, he was born with an extraordinary memory — visual, verbal, and sensory. Then we fast forward to 2014 and follow a young girl named Narin. She is being cared for by her grandmother in Hasankeyf and is slowly losing her hearing. Finally, we meet Dr. Zaleekhah Clark, a hydrologist, and it’s 2018 London. She is newly separated from her husband and trying to make a new life for herself.

There is so much that goes on in this story but Shafak takes her time. She carefully takes us back and forth in time, giving us more and more details of the lives of each protagonist, slowly threading and making the bigger connections between these events and people. It is truly masterful!

‘Whether turbid or placid, in this land where the stones are ancient and the stories are spoken but rarely written down, it is the rivers that govern the days of our lives. Many kings have come but here in Mesopatamia, my love, never forget the only true ruler is water.’

As I write this review, I realize There Are Rivers in the Sky is a pretty melancholy story, but I didn’t feel that while reading it. I was just so captivated by the writing and this epic story. This book took me on an incredible journey. ‘The Epic of Gilgamesh’ is such an important poem to the characters in this story, that I had to buy it and read it for myself.

From ‘The Epic of Gilgamesh’

No son is left with his father, for Gilgamesh takes them all; and is this the king, the shepherd of his people? His lust leaves no virgin to her lover, neither the warrior’s daughter nor the wife of the noble.'

Later in the book Narin’s grandmother tells her about a famous scientist named Al-Jazari. So, of course, I had to research him to see what he was all about. In my findings, I ran across a short video that gave a detailed breakdown of his inventions, which was fascinating!

Reading this book also led to reading two NY Times articles about the River Thames, floods, and mudlarking.

• An article published in 1976 titled Drought in Britain Causes the River Thames to ‘Leak’

• A 2020 article titled Mudlarks Scour the Thames to Uncover 2,000 Years of Secrets.

Both were very interesting and definitely worth the read.

I cannot recommend this book enough. If you didn’t already pre-order this book, make your way to the bookstore or your library and get your hands on it.

Let me know if you’ve read an early copy of this book or if you plan to buy and read this book soon.