There Are Rivers in the Sky by Elif Shafak

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About the Book

There Are Rivers in the Sky is Elif Shafak's sweeping, spellbinding novel of one lost poem, two great rivers, and three remarkable lives, all connected by a single drop of water. In the ancient city of Nineveh, on the banks of the River Tigris, King Ashurbanipal of Mesopotamia — erudite but ruthless — builds a great library that crumbles with the end of his reign. From its ruins emerges a fragment of the Epic of Gilgamesh, a poem whose legacy will bind together three lives across centuries.

In 1840 London, Arthur is born beside the stinking, sewage-filled Thames to an abusive, alcoholic father and a mentally ill mother; his only escape from destitution is his brilliant memory, which carries him from the slums to become one of the great Assyriologists of his generation. In 2014 Turkey, Narin, a young Yazidi girl living by the Tigris, waits to be baptized in its waters — a ceremony cruelly interrupted as she and her grandmother are forced to flee across war-torn lands in search of her people's sacred valley, as ISIS advances. And in 2018 London, newly divorced hydrologist Zaleekhah moves onto 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, the novel entwines these outsiders through a single drop of water that remanifests across the centuries — because, as Shafak writes, water remembers; it is humans who forget.

Why Choose This Book?

• A literary phenomenon: The UK's bestselling literary hardback novel of 2025, selling over 500,000 copies.
• From a Booker Prize finalist: Author of the acclaimed The Island of Missing Trees, shortlisted for major prizes including the Women's Prize for Fiction.
• Widely celebrated: Praised by The New York Times Book Review as a novel that "explodes into a roaring journey through ecology and memory... genuinely moving."
• Illuminates a hidden history: Shines an important spotlight on Yazidi culture and the persecution the community has endured.
• Award-winning: Winner of the Edward Stanford Award 2025 and the Gordon Bowker Volcano Prize, and a finalist for the Prix Fémina Étranger and the Orwell Prize for Political Fiction.

About the Author: Elif Shafak

Elif Shafak is an award-winning British-Turkish novelist, one of the most widely read authors in Turkey, whose work has been translated into more than 50 languages. Known for blending history, myth, and social conscience, her other acclaimed novels include The Island of Missing Trees, 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World, and The Forty Rules of Love.

Who Should Read This Book?

• Readers of ambitious, century-spanning historical and literary fiction
• Fans of Elif Shafak's The Island of Missing Trees and The Forty Rules of Love
• Anyone interested in Mesopotamian history, the Epic of Gilgamesh, or Yazidi culture
• Readers drawn to multi-timeline, interconnected storytelling
• Book club members seeking a rich, thought-provoking, discussion-worthy read

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Order now and bring home There Are Rivers in the Sky — a dazzling, century-spanning story of memory, water, and the lives it connects.