There are Rivers in the Sky by Elif Shafak is a beautifully written novel that spans different times and places, all connected by water and the stories of those who rely on it.

The book takes us from ancient Mesopotamia, along the Tigris River, to 1850s London, and finally to modern-day Turkey and London. Arthur is a young man with a troubled past who discovers the Epic of Gilgamesh, the oldest poem in the world while working at the British Museum. Dr. Zaleekhah Clarke is a hydrologist in present-day London, struggling with the climate crisis and personal issues. Narin is a Kurdish girl whose life is torn apart by war and the construction of a dam that will flood her hometown to create a reservoir, erasing it from the map.

Shafak’s writing is lyrical and poetic, which makes the book a joy to read, even though it has a slow, melancholy feel. The way she writes about water, as something more than just a resource, really made me appreciate it in a new way. However, the book does rely on a lot of coincidences that might be a bit hard to believe, and the slow pacing might not be for everyone.