Book: There Are Rivers in the Sky
Author: Elif Shafak
Country: Turkey
Format: Audiobook
Narrator: Olivia Vinall
Length: 16h 49min
Publication: 2024
This might be my favourite book of this year. It had such a deep influence on me that it altered the direction of my reading and sent me down an ancient history research rabbit hole.
The story starts around 650 BCE in ancient Mesopotamia. By the banks of the River Tigris stands the palace of King Ashurbanipal, the last ruler of the Assyrian Empire. He stands on the balcony overlooking the city of Nineveh, where he has built one of the biggest libraries in the ancient world. Suddenly, a raindrop falls on his head. He can feel a storm coming — a storm that will transform into a big flood. In his hand he holds one of the many versions of the Epic of Gilgamesh, the oldest story ever recorded, which ironically also recounts the tale of a flood.
The story then jumps to the banks of the River Thames, in London, in 1840. A boy is born to a very poor mother. They name him King Arthur of the Sewers and Slums at the very moment a snowflake falls into his mouth — a snowflake that had once been a raindrop in distant lands. The boy has an extraordinary memory and develops an interest in ancient civilizations when he sees a book entitled Nineveh and Its Remains: With an Account of a Visit to the Chaldaean Christians of Kurdistan, and the Yezidis, or Devil-Worshippers.
In 2014, a girl named Narin is standing by the River Tigris, in Turkey. Her grandmother and she watch as heavy machinery is brought to the banks to start the construction of a new dam. The girl is sick and slowly going deaf. The grandmother wants to take her to Iraq, to the site where Nineveh once stood, so she can be properly baptized in their holy waters. Coming from a long line of Yazidis, their family has suffered prejudice from all sides. They walk the banks of the River Tigris, and the girl clutches a bottle of sacred water in her hands — inside it, a drop that was once a snowflake by the River Thames.
We jump to London in 2018, where a newly divorced hydrologist decides to rent a houseboat by the River Thames. Zaleekah struggles to find her footing, but an unexpected connection with someone who’s fascinated by ancient history breathes new life into her world. Depressed, she often finds herself crying, and little does she know that one of her tears was once a drop of water in a bottle by another river.
As in The Island of Missing Trees, nature elements are some of the main characters in Elif Shafak’s latest novel, There Are Rivers in the Sky. In this book, she uses water as a common element that binds the three storylines (Arthur, Narin, and Zaleekah) together.
“Londoners have been saying that the river is a silent murderer, but Arthur understands it’s actually the other way around: it is humans who are killing the water.”
There Are Rivers in The Sky
But water isn’t the only connection between them. It feels like these three characters are constantly in each other’s orbits. A wooden chest built by Arthur’s father ends up in Zaleekah’s uncle’s house. A musical instrument that belonged to Arthur ends up in Narin’s family collection. The connection between Narin and Zaleekah is brilliant, but it’s not obvious until the last chapters, and I’ll not spoil that part for you.
But the main thing that binds them together is the ancient city of Nineveh. Arthur is fascinated by its mysteries, Narin’s religion is deeply rooted in that land, and Zaleekah’s ancestry and present relationships are also tied to the ancient library of King Ashurbanipal.
The way the author describes the city, right at the beginning of the book, is also fascinating. I was listening to it in an audiobook while walking in Midtown Toronto, and I suddenly saw myself immersed in those ancient streets.
“This is the capital of a mighty empire. (…) With a population of 175,000 souls, it is an urban gem at the junction of the prosperous highlands to the north and the fertile lowlands of Babylonia to the south.”
There Are Rivers in The Sky
Another thing that is fascinating in the book is the story of the Yazidis. I’d heard of them before, but I didn’t know everything they went through in order to keep their religion alive. Despised by Christians, Jews, and Muslims due to pure prejudice, they often become refugees.
During the peak of ISIS activities in the Middle East, 400,000 Yazidis were displaced, 5,000 men and older women were summarily executed, and 6,000 women and girls were kidnapped and forced into sexual slavery. Many of these victims are still stuck in the cycle of violence, working in houses as domestic slaves or forced into prostitution. The event was recognized as a genocide by many international organizations.
“If you only knew—it takes a fierce fight inside to remain peaceful on the outside. (…) Tranquility does not come easily. (…)
There Are Rivers in The Sky
Better to be a gentle soul than one consumed by anger, resentment, and vengeance. Anyone can wage war, but maintaining peace is a difficult thing.”
In my opinion, this is what a good book does for me: it teaches me a little more about the world we live in. A religion, a culture, a language, or a country I didn’t know about now enters my body of knowledge, and my view of the world is expanded. This book had so many of those elements — not to mention it’s a work of Historical Fiction that at the same time dives deeply into ancient mythology and history, topics I’m fascinated by. Elif Shafak did such a great service to her Turkish homeland by bringing these ancient stories to life.
She is now one of my favourite authors, along with Margaret Atwood and Isabel Allende. I want to read all her books.
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