Water hardens under adverse conditions, just like the human heart.
In ancient times, by the life-giving Tigris River, a small raindrop falls on the head of the cruel ruler Ashurbanipal, obsessed with the clay tablets on which the famous Epic of Gilgamesh is written. Following the cyclical path of the drop through the centuries, we travel through countries and cultures, and its changes bring us to new heroes: a boy with a genius memory born on the banks of the dirty Thames in Victorian London, a deaf girl who in 2014 goes with her grandmother to the Lalish Valley, a sacred place of her people facing destruction. In our time, they are joined by a scientist who leaves her husband and settles in her new home: a boat on the Thames.
This enchanting novel by Elif Shafak follows the wondrous flows of water, history, and fate, writing a story woven with deep empathy for the unfortunate and the outcast. Water rules over them all – it is both the harbinger of life and the messenger of death. Although the body is mortal, the soul is an eternal traveler – just like the drop of water. Water remembers. People forget.
"An odyssey, an epic, a story of redemption. 'There Are Rivers in the Sky' is a call to pay homage to the elemental forces that shape our memories, our histories, our world. In short – a masterpiece."
