There Are Rivers in the Sky

“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, author of The Book of Form and Emptiness

“There Are Rivers in the Sky explodes into a roaring journey through ecology and memory… genuinely moving.”—The New York Times Book Review

“Think Cloud Atlas, but with a single drop of water connecting all the stories.”—Parade Magazine

“Shafak weaves together a dazzling feat of storytelling that explores the pain of exile and the power of human resilience.”—Oprah Daily

“Flows like rivers from ancient Nineveh to present-day London with characters of the distant past as bright and vivid as those of today.” —Philippa Gregory, author of The Other Boleyn Girl

“Elif Shafak discovers the epic in the tiny, the global in the local, the love in the loss, the history in the momentary. An extraordinary novel, fresh and cleansing, like the rain bouncing off the metal roof of our lives.” —Colum McCann, author of Let the Great World Spin

“A brilliant, unforgettable novel, which raises big ideas of ‘who owns the past’ with nuance and complexity…. both natural and wonderfully unexpected.” —Mary Beard, author of SPQR

“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.”—Katie Kitamura, author of Intimacies

“Literature on a grand scale, mythic and timeless.” —Nadifa Mohamed, author of The Fortune Men

“There’s an elegance to Shafak’s storytelling that always draws me, but it is her grit and substance that held me to the last page. Wonderful.” —Bonnie Garmus, author of Lessons in Chemistry

“Elif Shafak is a unique and powerful voice in world literature.” —Ian McEwan, author of Atonement

“Wide-ranging, eloquent and lavishly detailed, There Are Rivers in the Sky expertly draws its various narratives to a powerful climax.” —Abdulrazak Gurnah, author of Afterlives

“Elif Shafak’s beautiful and moving new novel bears the reader along on its marvelous currents…. as the fate of a single drop of water weaves an intricate tapestry of love and loss.”—Robert MacFarlane, author of Underland

“Gloriously expansive and intellectually rich…. a magnificent achievement.”— The Spectator (UK)

“Spellbinding…. Like water itself, There Are Rivers in the Sky seeps into the cracks and crevasses of our humanity, unlocking a sense of wonder.”— BookPage, starred review*

“A multi-layered marvel…. I turned the pages hungrily, carried by Shafak’s energetic prose…. As ever, Shafak did not disappoint.”—Max Liu, I Paper

“This is a love song to the keepers of our stories and histories….Elif Shafak is one of them—a master storyteller whose prose thrums with such gorgeous details and propulsive spirit, flowing with a keen-eyed wisdom that only she could conjure. I came away feeling restored.”—Safiya Sinclair, author of How to Say Babylon

“A book that is astonishing, ingenious and beautiful. A modern classic. Elif Shafak is one of the great writers of our time.”—Peter Frankopan, author of The Earth Transformed

“Elif Shafak approaches the world with grace, lyricism, and courage…. 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, author of The Sympathizer

“Intricate, exhilarating storytelling that is a poetic reminder of how connected we are to one another and to the past.”—Tracy Chevalier, author of Girl With a Pearl Earring