There are Rivers in the Sky by Elif Shafak

5/5 Stars. Read November 2024.

This novel is a masterclass in storytelling, where the ripple of a single raindrop spans centuries, linking the lives of three characters from different eras in a profound, interconnected tapestry of human experience.

This novel is so artfully written I often had to set down my book to fully absorb the power of its words. A single raindrop falls and rises over civilizations centuries apart, touching the lives of three different characters from three different time periods to weave their stories together into one intricate, breathtaking web of human connection.

Arthur is a dirt-poor genius from the slums of London in the mid-1800s that develops a passion for Assyrian cuneiform and dedicates his life to unraveling the ancient Mesopotamian poem, the Epic of Gilgamesh.

Narin is a 10-year-old Yazidi girl descended from a line of seers. She visits Iraq in 2014 with her family to be baptized just as ISIS begins its terrible genocide to wipe out the Yazidi faith.

Zaleekah is a suicidal hydrologist in London that rediscovers meaning in her life when she connects with her heritage by exploring The Epic of Gilgamesh.

Here find complex themes and gripping twists.

Their stories cover a sprawling breadth of compelling themes — the climate crisis, mental illness, xenophobia… the list goes on. But not once did this novel sink under the weight of all it carries. The plot twists, the prose, and the historical context kept the story moving clearly its whole length. It was absolutely brilliant.

“It is an odd thing, to lose faith in the beliefs you once held firmly. How strange it is to have carried your convictions like a set of keys, only to realize they will not open any doors.”

“[the raindrop] will never forget what it has witnessed today. It has been changed—forever. Even after centuries have passed, a trace of this moment will remain embedded in its elemental form. As ripples of heat rise into the air, the raindrop will slowly evaporate. But it won’t disappear. Sooner or later, that tiny, translucent bead of water will ascend back to the blue skies. Once there, it will bide its time, waiting to return to this troubled earth again…and again. Water remembers. It is humans who forget.”