There Are Rivers in the Sky: A novel BY Elif Shafak

In There Are Rivers in the Sky, Elif Shafak weaves a spellbinding narrative connecting three distinct lives across time and geography through the symbolic and literal power of water.

In ancient Nineveh along the Tigris River, King Ashurbanipal’s lost library and the Epic of Gilgamesh link past and present. This epic poem, though ancient, reverberates through time, intertwining the lives of its readers and those who live along its rivers.

In 1840 London, Arthur is born into poverty beside the polluted Thames River. Despite his abusive upbringing, his prodigious memory offers him a lifeline. As an apprentice at a prominent publishing house, Arthur discovers a book about Nineveh, sparking a fascination that connects him to the ancient epic and its legacy.

Fast forward to 2014 Turkey, where ten-year-old Narin, a Yazidi girl, faces the imminent loss of her hearing due to a rare disorder. Her grandmother’s quest to have her baptized in a sacred Iraqi temple is threatened by the encroaching violence of ISIS and the destruction of their ancestral lands along the Tigris.

In 2018 London, Zaleekah, a hydrologist, moves onto a houseboat on the Thames after a divorce. Confronting her own grief and contemplating suicide, she finds solace and a renewed sense of purpose in a book about her homeland and its rivers.

Shafak’s novel beautifully captures how rivers—the Tigris and the Thames—serve as metaphors for memory, history, and human connection. Through her vivid storytelling, she reveals how these waters, as sources of life and symbols of fate, bridge past and present, uniting disparate lives across centuries.