THE TOP FIVE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER
This is the story of one lost poem, two great rivers, and three remarkable lives – all connected by a single drop of water.
*****
In the ruins of Nineveh, that ancient city of Mesopotamia, there lies hidden in the sand fragments of a long-forgotten poem, the Epic of Gilgamesh.
In Victorian London, an extraordinary child is born at the edge of the dirt-black Thames. When his brilliant memory earns him a spot as an apprentice at a printing press, the world opens up far beyond the slums and across the seas.
In 2014 Turkey, Narin, a Yazidi girl living by the River Tigris, waits to be baptised. The ceremony is cruelly interrupted, and soon she and her grandmother must journey across war-torn lands in the hope of reaching the sacred valley of their people.
In 2018 London, broken-hearted Zaleekhah, a hydrologist, moves to a houseboat on the Thames to escape the wreckage of her marriage – until an unexpected connection to her homeland changes everything.
A dazzling feat of storytelling from one of the greatest writers of our time that spans centuries, continents and cultures, entwined by rivers, rains, and waterdrops.
*****
‘Elif Shafak is a unique and powerful voice in world literature’ Ian McEwan
'An extraordinary novel, fresh and cleansing, like the rain bouncing off the metal roof of our lives' Colum McCann
'Make place for Elif Shafak on your bookshelf. Make place for her in your heart too. You won't regret it' Arundhati Roy
'One of the best writers in the world today' Hanif Kureishi
'A brilliant, unforgettable novel' Mary Beard
Elif Shafak, a Nielsen bestseller of 2023
Genre: Literary Fiction
This is the story of one lost poem, two great rivers, and three remarkable lives – all connected by a single drop of water.
*****
In the ruins of Nineveh, that ancient city of Mesopotamia, there lies hidden in the sand fragments of a long-forgotten poem, the Epic of Gilgamesh.
In Victorian London, an extraordinary child is born at the edge of the dirt-black Thames. When his brilliant memory earns him a spot as an apprentice at a printing press, the world opens up far beyond the slums and across the seas.
In 2014 Turkey, Narin, a Yazidi girl living by the River Tigris, waits to be baptised. The ceremony is cruelly interrupted, and soon she and her grandmother must journey across war-torn lands in the hope of reaching the sacred valley of their people.
In 2018 London, broken-hearted Zaleekhah, a hydrologist, moves to a houseboat on the Thames to escape the wreckage of her marriage – until an unexpected connection to her homeland changes everything.
A dazzling feat of storytelling from one of the greatest writers of our time that spans centuries, continents and cultures, entwined by rivers, rains, and waterdrops.
*****
‘Elif Shafak is a unique and powerful voice in world literature’ Ian McEwan
'An extraordinary novel, fresh and cleansing, like the rain bouncing off the metal roof of our lives' Colum McCann
'Make place for Elif Shafak on your bookshelf. Make place for her in your heart too. You won't regret it' Arundhati Roy
'One of the best writers in the world today' Hanif Kureishi
'A brilliant, unforgettable novel' Mary Beard
Elif Shafak, a Nielsen bestseller of 2023
Genre: Literary Fiction
Praise for this book
"A great, sweeping, enthralling novel - Elif Shafak's narrative vision is as remarkable and astonishing as ever. Wonderful." - William Boyd
"Intricate, exhilarating storytelling that is a poetic reminder of how connected we are to one another and to the past." - Tracy Chevalier
"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
"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: bold, capacious, beautiful and wise." - Katie Kitamura
"Walt Whitman said that a blade of grass contains the journey work of stars. William Blake wrote that we can see the world in a grain of sand. Toni Morrison said that we never shape the world, but the world shapes us. And so Shafak finds the world in a drop of water. She 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
"Elif Shafak is a unique and powerful voice in world literature." - Ian McEwan
"Literature on a grand scale, mythic and timeless." - Nadifa Mohamed
"Elif Shafak approaches the world with grace, lyricism, and courage. Confronting societies riven by conflicts over gender, religion, sexuality, nationalism, memory, ideology, and more, Shafak wields the novel's artistic power to cut through complacency and orthodoxy with ruthlessness and beauty. 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
"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
"Make place for Elif Shafak on your bookshelf. Make place for her in your heart too. You won't regret it." - Arundhati Roy
"Intricate, exhilarating storytelling that is a poetic reminder of how connected we are to one another and to the past." - Tracy Chevalier
"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
"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: bold, capacious, beautiful and wise." - Katie Kitamura
"Walt Whitman said that a blade of grass contains the journey work of stars. William Blake wrote that we can see the world in a grain of sand. Toni Morrison said that we never shape the world, but the world shapes us. And so Shafak finds the world in a drop of water. She 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
"Elif Shafak is a unique and powerful voice in world literature." - Ian McEwan
"Literature on a grand scale, mythic and timeless." - Nadifa Mohamed
"Elif Shafak approaches the world with grace, lyricism, and courage. Confronting societies riven by conflicts over gender, religion, sexuality, nationalism, memory, ideology, and more, Shafak wields the novel's artistic power to cut through complacency and orthodoxy with ruthlessness and beauty. 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
"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
"Make place for Elif Shafak on your bookshelf. Make place for her in your heart too. You won't regret it." - Arundhati Roy
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Used availability for Elif Shafak's There are Rivers in the Sky