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Title details for There Are Rivers in the Sky by Elif Shafak - Wait list

There Are Rivers in the Sky

A novel

by Elif Shafak
Olivia Vinall
Audiobook
0 of 19 copies available
Wait time: About 13 weeks
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0 of 19 copies available
Wait time: About 13 weeks
From the Booker Prize finalist, author of The Island of Missing Trees, an enchanting new tale about three characters living along two great rivers, all connected by a single drop of water.
"Make place for Elif Shafak on your bookshelf. Make place for her in your heart too. You won't regret it."—Arundhati Roy, winner of the Booker Prize
In the ancient city of Nineveh, on the bank of the River Tigris, King Ashurbanipal of Mesopotamia, erudite but ruthless, built a great library that would crumble with the end of his reign. From its ruins, however, emerged a poem, the Epic of Gilgamesh, that would infuse the existence of two rivers and bind together three lives. 
In 1840 London, Arthur is born beside the stinking, sewage-filled River Thames. With an abusive, alcoholic father and a mentally ill mother, Arthur’s only chance of escaping destitution is his brilliant memory. When his gift earns him a spot as an apprentice at a leading publisher, Arthur’s world opens up far beyond the slums, and one book in particular catches his interest: Nineveh and Its Remains.
In 2014 Turkey, Narin, a ten-year-old Yazidi girl, is diagnosed with a rare disorder that will soon cause her to go deaf. Before that happens, her grandmother is determined to baptize her in a sacred Iraqi temple. But with the rising presence of ISIS and the destruction of the family’s ancestral lands along the Tigris, Narin is running out of time. 
In 2018 London, the newly divorced Zaleekah, a hydrologist, moves into a houseboat on the Thames to escape her husband. Orphaned and raised by her wealthy uncle, Zaleekah had made the decision to take her own life in one month, until a curious book about her homeland changes everything.  
A dazzling feat of storytelling, There Are Rivers in the Sky entwines these outsiders with a single drop of water, a drop which remanifests across the centuries. Both a source of life and harbinger of death, rivers—the Tigris and the Thames—transcend history, transcend fate: “Water remembers. It is humans who forget.”

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    August 20, 2024

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9780593914526
      • File size: 484119 KB
      • Duration: 16:48:34

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • AudioFile Magazine
      Olivia Vinall's slight English accent and careful diction allow the listener to enjoy the lyrical language in the overlapping stories of Arthur, a young man in Victorian London; Narin, a Yezidi girl in Turkey in 2014; and Zaleekhah, a woman in London in 2018. Vinall's pleasant narration starts with a raindrop that falls beside the River Tigris in olden times, which will wind the lives of these three together, much like the molecules in that very drop. Author Shafak masterfully uses water to illustrate the connections between cultures and the passage of time. Narrating the author's note, she gives listeners information about the books, research, and news stories that inspired and shaped this remarkable novel. E.J.F. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2024, Portland, Maine
    • Library Journal

      January 1, 2025

      The latest from Turkish British Booker Prize finalist Shafak (The Island of Missing Trees) starts with a single drop of rain in the ancient city of Nineveh on the banks of the River Tigris. The water connects three people from different eras whose lives are part of an endless hydrologic cycle. Born in 1840 London, Arthur overcomes poverty with his prodigious memory and a thirst for knowledge, eventually embarking on an archaeological quest in Nineveh. Narin is a 10-year-old in Turkey whose grandmother wants her to be baptized in the Tigris. They make their way to Nineveh just as the self-styled Islamic State asserts its power in the area. In London in 2018, hydrologist Zaleekah leaves her husband and moves onto a Thames houseboat where she contemplates suicide. Shafak interweaves the three stories while reflecting on critical human conflicts of the past and present. With a musical and compelling voice, narrator Olivia Vinall brings the three main characters to life, giving each a distinctive voice while jumping between perspectives and timeframes. Shafak narrates the afterword, discussing her meticulous research process in a clear voice. VERDICT A complex and moving novel, connecting past with present through stories, culture, and the magic of a single raindrop.--Joanna M. Burkhardt

      Copyright 2025 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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