There Are Rivers in the Sky by Elif Shafak

Genre: Historical Fiction, Literary Fiction, Multigenerational Saga, Magical Realism There Are Rivers in the Sky by Elif Shafak is a sweeping, lyrical novel that traces the invisible currents connecting three lives—across time and continents—through the enduring power of water, memory, and myth. 📖 Synopsis

• 630 BCE, Nineveh (ancient Mesopotamia): A single raindrop lands on King Ashurbanipal in his grand library, setting in motion a timeless journey.
• 1840, Victorian London: Arthur Smyth is born beside the polluted Thames. Gifted with a prodigious memory, he rises from poverty to become a scholar and obsessively seeks missing fragments of the Epic of Gilgamesh.
• 2014, Turkey: Narin, a ten-year-old Yazidi girl living by the Tigris, faces impending deafness and cultural displacement amid ancestral persecution.
• 2018, London: Zaleekhah, a hydrologist healing from a broken marriage, drifts into isolation on a houseboat until a poignant encounter with her heritage and the Gilgamesh epic rekindles her hope.

Each timeline is subtly woven together by that same raindrop—a drop that remembers what humans forget: the shared currents of history, trauma, and survival. 🔑 Key Themes

• Water as Memory and Witness: Rivers are living entities that carry tragedy, resistance, and hope—and resist being forgotten.
• Mythic Resonance: The Epic of Gilgamesh serves as a timeless bridge across characters and ages, echoing themes of mortality, friendship, and legacy.
• Cultural Survival: Narin’s narrative brings to light the Yazidi plight—fostering empathy for marginalized histories.
• Echoes of Empire & Exploitation: Arthur’s London and travels question colonial extraction—whether of water, history, or cultural artifacts.

💡 Why Read It?

• Epic in scope, intimate in detail
• Lyrical prose and powerful imagery
• Urgent themes of memory, climate, and justice
• A masterful meditation on how rivers, like stories, carry history across time

There Are Rivers in the Sky is a profound and poetic novel that reminds us: rivers remember what we forget—and stories are the currents that connect us all.