There are Rivers in the Sky

THE TOP FIVE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER

This is the story of one lost poem, two great rivers, and three remarkable lives - all connected by a single drop of water.

*****

In the ruins of Nineveh, that ancient city of Mesopotamia, there lies hidden in the sand fragments of a long-forgotten poem, the Epic of Gilgamesh.

In Victorian London, an extraordinary child is born at the edge of the dirt-black Thames. When his brilliant memory earns him a spot as an apprentice at a printing press, the world opens up far beyond the slums and across the seas.

In 2014 Turkey, Narin, a Yazidi girl living by the River Tigris, waits to be baptised. The ceremony is cruelly interrupted, and soon she and her grandmother must journey across war-torn lands in the hope of reaching the sacred valley of their people.

In 2018 London, broken-hearted Zaleekhah, a hydrologist, moves to a houseboat on the Thames to escape the wreckage of her marriage - until an unexpected connection to her homeland changes everything.

A dazzling feat of storytelling from one of the greatest writers of our time that spans centuries, continents and cultures, entwined by rivers, rains, and waterdrops.

*****

**'**Elif Shafak is a unique and powerful voice in world literature' Ian McEwan

'An extraordinary novel, fresh and cleansing, like the rain bouncing off the metal roof of our lives' Colum McCann

**'Make place for Elif Shafak on your bookshelf.

Make place for her in your heart too. You won't regret it' Arundhati Roy**

'One of the best writers in the world today' Hanif Kureishi

'A brilliant, unforgettable novel' Mary Beard

Elif Shafak, a Nielsen bestseller of 2023