There are Rivers in the Sky by Elif Shafak
THE TOP FIVE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER The breathtaking new novel from the Booker-shortlisted, bestselling author of The Island of Missing Trees and 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World. ***** 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. Arthur’s only chance of escaping poverty is his brilliant memory. When his gift earns him a spot as an apprentice at a printing press, Arthur’s world opens up far beyond the slums, with one book soon sending him across the seas: Nineveh and Its Remains. In 2014 Turkey, Narin, a Yazidi girl living by the River Tigris, waits to be baptised with water brought from the holy sit of Lalish in Iraq. The ceremony is cruelly interrupted, and soon Narin 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. Zaleekhah foresees a life drained of all love and meaning – until an unexpected connection to her homeland changes everything. A dazzling feat of storytelling from one of the greatest writers of our time, Elif Shafak’s There are Rivers in the Sky is a rich, sweeping novel that spans centuries, continents and cultures, entwined by rivers, rains, and waterdrops: ‘Water remembers. It is humans who forget.’ ***** ‘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
Make place for Elif Shafak on your bookshelfMake place for her in your heart too. You won't regret it * Arundhati Roy *
It will surprise no one that this is a brutal, elegant and incredible book. Amazing what Elif Shafak has done here - again! Magic. -- Evie Wyld
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
A book that is astonishing, ingenious and beautiful. A modern classic. Elif Shafak is one of the great writers of our time -- Peter Frankopan
A deep and satisfying sweep of a story combining intellectual pleasures with a transformative empathy. Particular, universal, with head and with heart in perfect balance, this is surely a landmark novel. -- Laline Paull
A great, sweeping, enthralling novel - Elif Shafak's narrative vision is as remarkable and astonishing as ever. Wonderful. -- Will Boyd
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
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
Elif Shafak's beautiful and moving new novel bears the reader along on its marvellous currents. Here, rivers twine with other rivers and lives with other lives across centuries and cultures, as the fate of a single drop of water weaves an intricate tapestry of love and loss -- Robert Macfarlane
Intricate, exhilarating storytelling that is a poetic reminder of how connected we are to one another and to the past. -- Tracy Chevalier
A great epic novel, as swift as a torrent, as deep as an ocean. Elif Shafak at the height of her powers, sweeping us off our feet. -- Leila Slimani
A brilliant, unforgettable novel, which raises big ideas of 'who owns the past' with nuance and complexity. Elif Shafak ties together diverse time periods and places in a way that seems both natural and wonderfully unexpected. -- Mary Beard
Another mystical novel from Elif Shafak, in which time dissolves in the timeless water of two rivers and the characters who live beside them. The story flows like the rivers from ancient Nineveh to present-day London with characters of the distant past as bright and vivid as those of today. -- Philippa Gregory
Elif Shafak is a unique and powerful voice in world literature -- Ian McEwan
Shafak makes a new home for us in words -- Colum McCann
A writer of important, beautiful, painful, truthful novels -- Marian Keyes
Glorious, a journey across nature and history, memory and life, by our finest weaver of tales -- Philippe Sands
It will surprise no one that this is a brutal, elegant and incredible book. Amazing what Elif Shafak has done here - again! Magic. -- Evie Wyld
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
A book that is astonishing, ingenious and beautiful. A modern classic. Elif Shafak is one of the great writers of our time -- Peter Frankopan
A deep and satisfying sweep of a story combining intellectual pleasures with a transformative empathy. Particular, universal, with head and with heart in perfect balance, this is surely a landmark novel. -- Laline Paull
A great, sweeping, enthralling novel - Elif Shafak's narrative vision is as remarkable and astonishing as ever. Wonderful. -- Will Boyd
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
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
Elif Shafak's beautiful and moving new novel bears the reader along on its marvellous currents. Here, rivers twine with other rivers and lives with other lives across centuries and cultures, as the fate of a single drop of water weaves an intricate tapestry of love and loss -- Robert Macfarlane
Intricate, exhilarating storytelling that is a poetic reminder of how connected we are to one another and to the past. -- Tracy Chevalier
A great epic novel, as swift as a torrent, as deep as an ocean. Elif Shafak at the height of her powers, sweeping us off our feet. -- Leila Slimani
A brilliant, unforgettable novel, which raises big ideas of 'who owns the past' with nuance and complexity. Elif Shafak ties together diverse time periods and places in a way that seems both natural and wonderfully unexpected. -- Mary Beard
Another mystical novel from Elif Shafak, in which time dissolves in the timeless water of two rivers and the characters who live beside them. The story flows like the rivers from ancient Nineveh to present-day London with characters of the distant past as bright and vivid as those of today. -- Philippa Gregory
Elif Shafak is a unique and powerful voice in world literature -- Ian McEwan
Shafak makes a new home for us in words -- Colum McCann
A writer of important, beautiful, painful, truthful novels -- Marian Keyes
Glorious, a journey across nature and history, memory and life, by our finest weaver of tales -- Philippe Sands
Elif Shafak is an award-winning British Turkish novelist whose work has been translated into fifty-five languages. The author of nineteen books, twelve of which are novels, she is a bestselling author in many countries around the world. Shafak's latest novel, The Island of Missing Trees, was a top ten Sunday Times bestseller, a Reese Witherspoon Book Club pick and was shortlisted for the Costa Novel Award and the Women's Prize. Her previous novel 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in this Strange World was shortlisted for the Booker Prize and the RSL Ondaatje Prize; longlisted for the Dublin Literary Award; and chosen as Blackwell's Book of the Year. Her novel The Forty Rules of Love was chosen by the BBC as one of the 100 books that shaped our century. Shafak was awarded the Halldór Laxness International Literature Prize for her contribution to 'the renewal of the art of storytelling.'
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9780241435014 |
| Title | There are Rivers in the Sky |
| Author | Elif Shafak |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Publisher | Penguin Books Ltd |
| Year published | 2024-08-08 |
| Number of pages | 496 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |