This is an extraordinary book, emotionally charged and full of the most fantastic, peculiar and informative detail. It draws you in and pulls you under – the reader has to work hard to stay afloat but it is well worth the effort.

The story is set in modern and Victorian London as well as in modern and 19th century Iraq and Turkey. It is also intrinsically linked to King Ashurbanipal’s reign of the Assyrian Empire BC and the Epic of Gilgamesh. Don’t let this put you off, be patient and go with the story lines and you will be so much richer and wiser when they come to their conclusion.

The main characters are King Arthur of the Sewers and Slums, whose fascination with Nineveh and the Assyrian Empire takes him from the shores of the Thames to those on the Tigris. There is Narin, a girl growing up in a Turkish Yazidi community next to the Tigris and there is Leila, her great-great grandmother, a Yazidi seer and wise woman. The fourth main character is Zaleekha, who has just rented a houseboat on the Thames and works as a scientist to recover the lost rivers of our world. They all have a story to tell but when those stories merge, they are much more than just the sum of the individual narratives. Brilliantly told and masterly woven together.

Given the importance water and living next to it has for the main characters, this book is also dedicated to the memory of water, the defining force of life that connects us all, crossing centuries, borders and everything else that tends to divide humankind. Climate crisis as water crisis is a central theme of the book, but it also touches on topics like who owns cultural heritage, the persecution of minorities and otherness and the struggle of second-generation immigrants.

This book is ever so well written and researched – its richness needs time to digest but what a feast it was.
I am grateful to NetGalley and Viking/Penguin Random House for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

5 stars isn't enough.

Elif Shafak is so good at historical epic fiction. There Are Rivers in the Sky gives us three personal histories with Nineveh at their heart.

We have Arthur Smith born to a poor family who has a phenomenal memory and a brain that works like noone else's. He begins his working life in a publishing house where his vast intellect and curiosity are encouraged by his employers but his real passion and interest in Nineveh begins when he sees the lamassus sculptures being brought to the British Museum.

Secondly we have Zaleekah, recently split from her husband and contemplating her life choices. Her interest is in rainfall and it's life cycle (which, on its own, would make for a fascinating novel). She moves to a houseboat and meets a tattooist who reignited her interest in cuneiform.

Finally we have Narin, a young Yazidi girl who lives on the banks of the Tigris. Her grandmother is determined that her favourite should be baptised in the Valley of Lalish in Iraq.

In setting the story Shafak gives us a wonderful backdrop of the city of Nineveh which was destroyed by fire after civil war. It was home to a vast library which held the clay tablets now at the British Museum.

The history of the city is fascinating and the way Elif Shafak weaves the ancient history into the story of these three people is simply sublime. The three stories feel connected from the beginning and we are given little insights into what will happen to them all the way through.

The stories are often quite emotionally fraught and deal with some heavyweight issues such as the rise of ISIS, the destruction of the valleys by the construction of dams, sale/removal of historical artefacts.

The research on this book must have been phenomenal. It covers so much ground. But the stories are still so beautifully told and I cared about each one of the main characters. It is incredibly emotive at times.

I loved this book. It will definitely rank as one of my favourites for this year. As an author she blows me away with her story telling especially with an epic tale. Absolutely mesmerising. I listened to qanun music, I looked up the geography, I looked at images of the artefacts and downloaded the Eoic of Gilgamesh. It's the sort of book that inspires you to read more history.

Very highly recommended.

Thankyou very much to Netgalley and Penguin for the advance review copy. Most appreciated.

Probably my most anticipated read of the year, and it did not disappoint. Elif Shafak cements her place as a master storyteller, weaving multiple narratives together and spanning centuries. All linked by a single drop of water. It’s ambitious, but it really works.

5 stars, which tells me I really need to pick up Shafak’s older novels asap

This story is told in three different timelines, following three main characters called Arthur, Narin and Zaleekhah.
This is the second novel I read by Elif Shafak and the style and the universe are very similar, I enjoyed it a lot. You can definitely recognize stuff from one book to another in her style and her choices.

At first, I felt like I needed some time to get into it, didn’t connect with the characters immediately, but it did happen later on. They are three very different people, though there is a general feeling of melancholy in all of them. I think they are all very relatable characters, readers will see parts of themselves in all of them. I sure did. I also loved the beautiful LGBTQIA representation I found in this novel, when I wasn’t even expecting it.

There are Rivers in the Sky had some elements that I absolutely love and that I had already enjoyed in Shafak’s previous book, The Island of Missing Trees:
- jumping back and forth in time and slowly watching things make sense until you connect it all, I really loved how the chapters were organized and how they echo each other on not one but various themes.
- stories and characters connected to the elements and the nature around; Shafak has the ability to personify elements of the natural world and make you care about them, so much that it turns into a character and you enjoy the little mentions of this element throughout the novel. In her last book, The Island of Missing Trees, it was a fig tree. Here it’s a drop of water.
- you can feel something terrible is about to happen and all you can do is watch it come closer and closer, her characters just give off that vibe that they themselves know deep down that they are doomed… it’s really well done.
- Shafak’s writing manages to be poetic, epic at times, bordering on fantasy, and still it’s easy to read and feels so real!

In terms of theme and plot, you’ll enjoy this if you’re interested in Mesopotamia and ancient civilizations (but also the modern-day inhabitants of the region surrounding the Tigris, and especially the Yazidi people), archeology and research (do ancient artifacts belong in museums, or should they be left in the hands of the people whose history is still linked to them?), language and storytelling (our perception of the world and other people is shaped by the stories we’ve been told, even if these stories erase the truth—after time passes, most things keep existing only because people tell their stories). The theme of water is fascinating and I had never read anything that explored it the way Elif Shafak does in There are Rivers in the Sky, though I won’t write much about it and let you see for yourself.

Now, this book left me incredibly sad and kind of drained, but in the best way. Despite all the terrible events, it doesn’t leave you crushed by the end of it.
Stories like this one are important and they remind us that what happened a long time ago still affects the present in some way. I'm pretty sure that readers who love Shafak's previous works and novels of a similar genre will absolutely love this one!

Thank you Penguin and NetGalley for sending me this e-arc 💛

"Water remembers. It is humans who forget."
"The story of humanity cannot be written without the story of water."
"Whatever happens, tell it to the water. It'll take away all the pain and fear."

Arthur was born when his mother was in the middle of mud-larking at River Thames back in 1840. And he's named King Arthur of The Sewers and Slums. Though he was born on poverty and hardship, he's destined to go BIG.
Narin, a Yazidi girl who is almost deaf, and her family ancestors gifted with remarkable skills. She and her grandmother are about to travel to Iraq
Zaleekhah's story sets in 2018. She is an orphan as her parents died from flash flooding when she was seven years old. She studies water for a living, and after separated with her husband, she moved to a house boat.

Three characters, three timelines, two rivers, and a drop of water, amazingly braided this beautiful story.

Every time I read a book from Elif Shafak, I always devour it and just don't want it to end. Many things in this book are inspired by true historical events and figures. Reading through this book , you'll feel how intense and deep the research is done by Elif. While reading this book, I googled a lot of stuff, from the Yazidi genocide, lamassus, Epic of Gilgamesh, and cuneiform.

The narrative, the plot, and the writing style are so captivating. It was an absolute breathtaking read and one of my BEST read for 2024!

PS: Oh my gosh, I only know by reading this book that we can bury a river and build a city over it 😳

Without a doubt my most favourite read of the year so far, also my first Elif Shafak read, I struggled to put this one down.

Set in three timelines, the 1800’s, 2014 and 2018, in Turkey, Iraq and London, the three main characters have no connection, but for a single drop of water. All have experienced extreme hardship and sorrow in their lives and all are extremely strong characters.

Based loosely on historical events, we travel from London to Mesopotamia, where the riches of history are taken from their homeland and the people of the region are persecuted, sadly these actions are not just moments of history, as they still happen today.

A wonderful tale, written beautifully, which has inspired me to learn more about Mesopotamian history.

Thank you to NetGalley for this early read.

Thank you to Netgalley, the publisher and of course the fabulous author Elif Shafak for this ARC. I am a huge fan of Shafak’s work and this novel did not disappoint. Beautifully told, poetically written and poignantly structured I thoroughly enjoyed getting lost in the magic and history of this book. A fabulous read for fans of Shafak’s other work. A privilege to read before release.

There are some authors who have a skill for writing with a certain magic, an indefinable quality that would make the dullest of topics seem intriguing. Elif Shafak is one of those - although the topics she has chosen for this ambitious novel are far from dull. There is an prologue set in ancient times, in the Mesopotamian city of Nineveh. The remainder of the book is split between three narratives that seem unrelated but gradually more connections appear between them and with the distant civilisation in Nineveh. There is Arthur, who rises from a slum in Victorian London to become an archaeologist; Narin, a Yazidi child in 2014 with the brutality of ISIS on the horizon; and Zaleekah, a hydrologist in 2018 who has recently split from her husband.

It's a story that must have taken an immense amount of research, as suggested from the acknowledgements, and covers such diverse topics as modern slavery, the appropriation of artefacts by Western museums, the concept of water having a memory, the trade in illegal organs, classism and epidemiology. But probably the most important theme is the persecution of Yazidi people. I had heard of the group, and knew they had suffered when ISIS took over swathes of Iraq and Syria, but I didn't know anything about them or that their mistreatment went back a long way in time. It seems like a fascinating and different culture, and another example of how a certain religious group can be demonised and subjected to the most appalling treatment - not just by the obvious evil of terrorist groups, but by ordinary citizens too.

It does take a while to really get going, although Shafak's style is so enjoyable you don't mind as much as you might if the writing were less good. I found the storyline with Narin the most moving and shocking. It is devastating to think there are still real Yazidi girls and women out there in the world, being kept in slavery. If I were to be very critical, I'd maybe suggest a tighter edit and cutting down some of the range of themes to allow more time to be spent on the remaining ones - there's such a lot packed in here, that it could have been two novels. But an author has to write the story that comes to them.

If you enjoy literary fiction or have any interest in the Middle East modern and/or ancient, this is an essential read. Shafak is an author who always delivers a good read, and this is not exception.

There Are Rivers in the Sky by Elif Shafak
…
I have read a number of Elif Shafak’s novels and this is my favourite so far. There are so many beautiful passages and thoughts within it. She explores water through its memory, its importance and its timelessness to create this beautiful story. The prose is delicate and lyrical and even though it is over 400 pages never felt it
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Focussing on the River Thames and the River Tigris to create a connection between her characters and the timelines. Through Arthur, who is born on the wintery banks of the Thames in the 1840s, to Narin, a Yazidi girl living by the Tigris whose life is turned upside down by war and its horrors, to Zaleekhah, a hydrologist who moves onto a houseboat on the Thames. The book alternates between these stories, with the Epic of Gilgamesh and the power of water connecting them together
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Arthur’s story was my favourite, as he grows up from the slums of London to travelling the world, always following Nineveh and the Epic. His life has ripples, which will lead into the stories of Nazin’s and Zaleekhah’s. He was a fascinating character, always striving to explore and uncover more, whilst the author is able to highlight the questions regarding museums and the artefacts they contain and obtain
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The book is also about loneliness and heartbreak, trauma and destruction, and there are some difficult passages to read, particularly within Nazin’s story. But it also a story of family and love and belief, and is one that will stay with me
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Thank you to Penguin and Viking books for this eARC.

Elif Shafak is fast becoming one of my favourite writers.. This is storytelling at its finest. It is written from three different points of view and in two different tiimelines. In Victorian London, a child is born by the side of the River Thames. Arthur Smyth will grow up in extreme poverty but his lifee will be enriched by his intelligence and his love of Nineveh and obsession with finding the missing tablets that tell the tale of Gligamesh. In the 21st century we have Narin, born by the River Tigris and Zahleika, a hyrdrologist living on a barge on the Thames. Shafak tells their stories in beautiful and moving prose covering with ease topics such as climate change, religious intolerance and genocide.

A wonderful book, I can't imagine reading anything better this year. Thanks to NetGalley and Penguin for the ARC.

Stunning, simply stunning.

It follows three characters in two different timelines. Arthur is born in the slums of Victorian London, by the polluted Thames. Salesian lives in a house boat in modern day London and is a hydrologist. Finally there is Nain a 9 year old Yazhidi girl who goes to Mozul.

Not only does this have Shafak’s wonderful prose it addresses a wide range of topics, cultural heritage, climate change, immigration, genocide, modern day slavery and the theme of water runs through it. For me, at no time did it seem heavy handed.

I would be surprised if this isn’t my book of the year. Cannot rate this highly enough.

I didn't know what to expect going into this book. It opens on a scene from ancient Mesopotamia but though a storyline begins there, it's almost more of a philosophical look at water and the life it has. At this point, I wasn't sure I was going to enjoy the book if it stayed in this realm of philosophy. Nevertheless, I kept reading, and the story began to diverge into different perspectives and timelines. The author weaves this philosophical idea of water into each storyline, but the story definitely becomes a narrative.

With each storyline, I thought I had to keep them separate and organized based on the time period they are written about, but I soon noticed that there were little nuggets that connected all the timelines to one another. I began to excitedly look for these nuggets and was pleased to start noticing more and more connections between the storylines.

This is my second book by this author (the other was Three Daughters of Eve), and I can see that she is a master at weaving together stories through multiple timelines, bringing them together in the end. The thought and planning that goes into a story like this is incredible. I enjoyed this book more than I expected to at the outset, and pretty early in the book, I felt really invested in the various characters and their stories. Even about 85% of the way in, I wasn't sure how it was going to end and how the author was going to tie everything together, but she did!

This is such a beautiful book. Shafak’s narrative covers three timelines:

1. King Arthur of the Sewers and Slums - born in 1840 on the bank of the river Thames into poverty … but soon to embark on a remarkable life due to his keen intelligence and astounding memory. He starts off working in publishing but soon transfers to the British Museum where he starts to translate the tablets from Mesopotamia featuring the Epic of Gilgamesh (the oldest world’s oldest piece of literature).
2. Zaleekhah - a Hydrologist newly living on a houseboat after the demise of her marriage in 2018. As she struggles to manage the darkness of her emotions, the water provides her with sustenance and the opportunity to make new friend.
3. Narin - a young Yazidi girl trying to flee the horrors of Isis in 2014. She has a degenerative condition that means she is slowly losing her hearing. Yet, her spirit and the beautiful mysticism of her water-diviner grandmother provides comfort.

All three stories are connected by the themes of storytelling, our bonds between the past and present, troubled family lives, acute loneliness, the horrors of a violent world. as well as how love can take us to unexpected emotional spaces. Of course, there are also the rivers in the novel. Both of them serve as the lifeblood of the book, especially how they offer a sense of renewal.

This is one of the best books I have read in the last few years. Elif Shafak’s prose is breathtakingly human and she cultivates such a vivid sense of feeling. If you loved ‘’Island of Missing Trees’ then be prepared to adore this even more. A must read of 2024!

Wow!
Absolutely fantastic.
How do I describe it.
It is the story of Water.
It is the story of the discovery, translation and consequences of the Epic of Gilgamesh.
It is the story of the main Translator of the Epic of Gilgamesh.
It is the story of a modern day family from Mesopotamia.
It is the story of another modern day family from Mesopotamia.
It is the story of a women scientist who studies water: in structure, function, history, today and the future.
All of the above were brilliantly woven together to produce a captivating tale.
My favourite part of favourite parts is the description of man as warring water.
My thanks to the author for opening my eyes to many, many things and for hours of enjoyment that the book has brought me, I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

This is a truly beautiful, haunting narrative that spans both centuries and continents. It interweaves the stories of three very different characters, Narin is a Yazidi child, learning all about her culture and heritage from her grandmother whilst also becoming aware of the cruel bigotry her faith attracts. Zaleekhah, who is battling depression in the aftermath of her failed marriage. I truly adored both of these characters and their harrowing journeys, however, it is King Arthur of the sewers and slums that I'll carry with me forever. All of these characters are linked by the Epic of Gilgamesh, written in an ancient form of writing on clay tablets in Nineveh and a single drop of water that once fell upon King Ashurbanipal in ancient Mesopotamia. The scope of this novel is truly breath-taking. This is a novel that will truly stay with me for a very, very long time. The way in which Shafak deals with the devastating genocide of the Yazidi people, her frank discussion of antiquities and historical artefacts, and how depression shapes us is honest and heart wrenching. I adored this novel.
Thank you so much to Netgalley and the publishers for providing me with an e-arc in return for an honest review.

In Elif Shafak's latest novel, There are Rivers in the Sky, two rivers take center stage. One is the river Tigris in ancient Mesopotamia and current day Turkey and Iraq, the other is the river Thames in London. Shafak takes the reader on a journey through time, starting with a single drop of rain, in 630 BCE in Nineveh during the reign of king Ashurbanipal, the last great king of Assyria.
"Later, when the storm has passed, everyone will talk about the destruction it left behind, but no one, not even the king himself, will remember that it all began with a single raindrop."
This might have been the best first sentence of a book I've read for a couple of years. I was intrigued from the very beginning. This single raindrop is the thread that runs through the whole of the novel. It introduces the reader to one of the novel's main characters, Arthur Smyth. In 1840, his poor mother, Arabella, gave birth to Arthur on the muddy banks of the river Thames. It is where he receives his nickname, King Arthur of the Sewers and Slums. Upon his birth the single raindrop falls again from the sky, this time as a snowflake, and into the newborn baby's mouth.
Arthur grows up to be a peculiar boy, with an interest in Mesopotamia, and working his way up out of the slums. He manages to get himself a position at the prestigious British Museum, where he studies ancient tablets from Mesopotamia and discovers the famous poem The Epic of Gilgamesh. He travels to Nineveh, near the river Tigris, in search of missing pieces of the poem.
Near the river Tigris, in the year 2014, Narin's story is set. Narin is a young girl of the Yazidi faith. She lives with her father and grandmother in Turkey. The family wants Narin to be baptised in the holy Valley of Lalish in the Nineveh Plains in northern Iraq. This storyline introduces the reader to the Yazidis, a people of a heavily persecuted religion, resulting in the historical Yazidi genocide in 2014.
This part of the story interested me the most, as I do not remember being taught about the Yazidi faith during my studies. As some of you might have read on my blog before I have studied Religious Studies. Perhaps it has been introduced to the curriculum following the genocide in 2014. It shows I have some catching up to do!
Then there is a storyline set in 2018. This storyline is centred around Zaleekhah Clarke, a young woman in London, who has just left her husband and has rented a houseboat on the river Thames. I can hear you think, 'What does she have to do with it all?' Well you might have figured out already that water is one of the key themes of Shafak's novel. Zaleekhah is a scientist, Dr. Z. Clarke, hydrologist.
All these different storylines, Shafak manages to bring them together perfectly. I would love to describe how she does this, but that would spoil the whole reading experience. All I can say is that it is masterfully done. Shafak's writing is beautiful. Even though the storylines are set in totally different times and settings, I felt as if I was there with them. Going through the highs and lows with the characters. Especially the genocide parts are hard to read, but it is so important that everyone knows what is happening even today in other regions of the world.
Please do not let the harsh historical and present day events keep you from reading this beautiful and at the same time educational novel!

Elif Shafak manages to present the lives of those touched by the epic of Gilgamesh through time. The scope of the novel is immense and complex. Not once did I want to put the book down to take a breath, I wanted the words to wash over me. The interwoven tales each have their own setting/time that’s as vivid as the characters themselves. The stories are all about life, love and healing. Each one beautifully presented through lyrical prose that I just don’t think any review will able to do it justice. This book is emotive and immersive with some really important messages about life and living. Definitely a new favourite book of mine that I will have to constantly recommend. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC. This is a voluntary review of my own thoughts.

There are Rivers in the Sky is a very interesting book. Span over multiple generations and different parts of world it touches on various topics from a drop of water to the epic of Gilgamesh to Yazidis and their persecution. I learnt a lot from this story and I always had my phone open so I could also do my own quick research whilst reading. Saddens me how events that were true 200 years ago are still relevant today. Whilst certain things certainly have changed at times feels like nothing has changed.

I have read few stories by Elif Shafak and there's no doubt she's an incredible writer and her prose is always so beautiful. Amongst the 3 narrations her strongest was Arthur's and then Narin's. Her weakest plot was Zaleekhah's and I felt we could've done without her plot. It felt unnecessary and towards the end when Narin and Arthur's connection was revealed I was still waiting for what Zaleekhah has to do with all this. I also felt at times the writing in middle became slightly repetitive and was waiting for the plot to pick up. Overall a very melancholic and sad book. Thank you Penguin UK for the eARC via NetGalley.

A tour de force, which is at once a historical novel, an emotive and elegant critique of the plight of the Yezidi people, and a nuanced discourse about history and its ownership. The story occurs across three periods - in the mid 1850s a young boy in London's slums becomes fascinated by the Mesopotamian culture and cuneiform, in 2014 a 9-yeal-old Yezidi girl living in Turkey is growing up steeped in her ancestral culture only to be thrust into the midst of another conflict afflicting her people, and, in 2018, a young water researcher living in London is struggling with personal trauma and tries to build bridges to her past and ancestry in Mesopotamia. Water is the red thread connecting all the stories in the book, and showing how it links lives, peoples, periods, and histories.

I really liked the book and was struck mostly by the incredibly impressive amount of research that went into writing it, and creating such a compelling well-written and engaging narrative. Having finished it, I still feel that a part of my mind still inhabits these pages and cries for the fate of the Yezidi people. The writing is at once telegraphic and dry, and, because of this, also emotive and emotional, drawing out such yearning and feelings of grief that tears do not suffice to quench. The characters in the book are sculpted with deep precision, and create multi dimensional human beings that feel alive, and make their experiences jump out from the pages and embed themselves in the readers memory and perception.

While I admire the book, the writing, and the subject matter, there was still one aspect of the book I found borderline intolerable. Specifically, the story of the drop of water and the continuous references to it felt shambolic and irrelevant. It really angered me - it added nothing to the story, failed to create any mystery, felt super forced, and came across as some sort of fan service for people need some mysticism in a story that already has so much power that it's nigh overwhelming. It was like that extra ingredient in a fantastic dish that just makes you wince - without it the dish would have been perfect, but having been added it makes the experience so much less than what it has the potential to be.

Hugely recommended to anyone - history buffs, folks fascinated by Mesopotamia, those interested in the Yezidi people, and people who are keen to better perceived the role of water in history, ancient and modern alike.

My thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with an early copy of the book in return for an honest review.

There Are Rivers in the Sky is 400+ pages, so it's definitely a commitment, but it's a lovely story. We follow multiple characters, their stories all set in vastly different times, places, and circumstances. Arthur is a destitute young genius in 19th century London, determined to make something of himself in the field of archaeology, particularly focused on finding and translating ancient Mesopotamian artefacts. Narin is travelling across the globe with her family for a religious ceremony that they hope will improve her quality of life, as every day she drifts closer to a fate nobody would wish for her. Zaleekhah moves to a houseboat on the Thames to escape her dead marriage, seemingly having lost the motivation to continue living. A hydrologist by occupation, she finds joy in water, though even this happiness is marred by pollution.

Each story is independent yet subtly linked by certain recurring motifs. The prose is gorgeous, dialogue realistic and believable, and the character building is wonderful. Personally, I felt it was lacking a little something extra to tie all the stories together in the conclusion, but equally I hate when author's try to link things together too much that it comes across and unrealistic and overdone.

Overall, this was a really quality novel, just missing out on a 5☆ for me personally, but I've no doubt this will be a favourite for many people! I'm looking forward to reading more of Shafak's novels for sure.