How to describe Elif Shafak's newest book There Are Rivers In The Sky (#1,306)? It's about water, specifically two rivers, the Thames and the Tigris. It's about characters spread across time and the world from Ninevah in ancient Mesopotamia to modern day London. And it's about the oldest recorded epic in the world Gilgamesh. Their stories are so cleverly intertwined and disparate yet they flow together in the end. No matter how harrowing, you want to keep reading to see what happens next as the narrative jumps from one time period to another, and back again.
What possible connections could a modern day hydrologist living on a houseboat on the Thames, a poor Yazidi girl caught in the web of the ISIS uprising, a boy born on the bank of the Thames in Victorian London and the all-powerful Assyrian king of Nineveh have? That's the tale that's spun here.
I know it sent me to search for more background information on the places Ms. Shafak writes about. Isn't that the object of a book? To make you think and explore for yourself things that have piqued your interest? There Are Rivers In The Sky succeeds admirably. Highly recommended.
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