A little informal buddy read this month was of the latest from the pen of Elif Shafak. I had seen it on Between the Covers on BBC Two and thought it sounded like a fascinating read. I hoped that it would be as wonderful as ‘The Island of Missing Trees’, as that was the book that brought me to Elif Shafak (and it appears I never reviewed for my blog, so I may have to correct that at some point soon).
‘There are Rivers in the Sky’ is a beautifully constructed, sweeping story, that brings together historical and contemporary fiction, all connected by a raindrop. It is almost like a love letter to the River Tigris and the River Thames. As both of these rivers bring us our characters and their stories, their history and their geography, each of our three main characters are passionate about the waterways, and their history and how they have brought them to where they are.
I am not sure I can do this book justice (and maybe that is why I have missed reviewing ‘The Island of Missing Trees’, as I was not sure that I could really write about and convey how beautiful it is as a book). There is so much amongst these pages that can be talked about shared but I do not want to spoil any of the story for anyone who is hoping to read it. However, I will say that the character of Arthur absolutely stole my heart, and I think his chapters were my favourite – he is our character from the furthest past and he is just a fabulous man. Arthur really connected both the River Thames and the River Tigris in our story. He was born on the River Thames, so water was part of his life from the moment he entered the world. And his love of learning eventually drew him to the River Tigris (with some other adventures in-between).
I read this book in a matter of days, as I just needed to find out what was going to happen to Arthur, Narin and Zaleekah, and how their stories would potentially be drawn together. And I can’t share how or why they are drawn together, or even what happens to each of them as that would be a spoiler, and there is only one way anyone should discover this story. They should pick it up and read it – and do not be worried about the number of pages; not one page or word is wasted, and it is worth every minute of reading time.
Something that makes me especially happy about this book is that Elif Shafak has a whole backlist of titles that I need to pick up, and that means there are so many more wonderful stories out there for me to discover – and that can only be a good thing.