I fell in love with Elif Shafak’s books a long time ago. I took her latest “There are rivers in the sky” with me to Turkey as a silent companion while travelling and discovering the incredible history of that country. The book tells the (intertwined) story of three main characters, going back and forward in time.
It is multilayered, touching various subjects, from the Yazidis*, a religious sect that lives in the Kurdish area between Iraq and Turkey, victims of genocides, the latest by Isis in 2014, to the role of museums, and archaeology, today, to climate change, to buried rivers in big cities and the controversial theory of the “memory of water”.
One of the characters is loosely shaped on George Smith**, the Assyriologist who deciphered cuneiform writing and translated the “Epic of Gilgamesh”, almost certainly the oldest story ever recorded in writing. Curiously, in the “Epic of Gilgamesh” written thousands of years before the Bible, there is a description of a flood, and the salvation of humans and animals in a big ship, and a bird returning after having discovered dry land. Does it remind you of anything?
The thread on Nineveh, Assyria and King Ashurbanipal was too interesting not to investigate further. I went to the British Museum to look at the artefacts that George Smith and other archaeologists had brought back from Nineveh. I wanted to look at what Elif Shafak had described in her book, I wanted to breathe the atmosphere she had so perfectly recreated. It definitely added a third dimension, looking at them while remembering the story spun by Elif.
I am not going to reveal more about the book plots. It is one of those books that you want, at the same time, to finish, to know what is going to happen, and yet you do not want it to end, to enjoy the company of the characters a little bit longer. “There are rivers in the sky” is not easy to forget. It opens new worlds and leaves you wanting to discover more.
Reading ‘There are Rivers in the Sky’ felt like travelling through time with a companion. As I turned the last page, I realised Elif Shafak’s words stayed with me long after I put the book down. Her storytelling invites us to reflect not only on forgotten civilizations and silent tragedies but also on the enduring power of stories to bridge time, space, and identity.
This is not just a book to be read; it is a journey to be experienced, a river of stories flowing across time, waiting for each reader to dive in and discover its depths.
*Yazidism is a monotheistic religion followed by the Yazidi people, a Kurdish-speaking minority group. It is considered an ancient faith with roots in pre-Zoroastrian Iranian religion, incorporating elements of Zoroastrianism, Sufi mysticism, Christianity, and Judaism. Yazidis have historically faced persecution, particularly from Islamic rulers and extremist groups. They have been accused of devil worship and have been victims of violence and genocide.
**George Smith (26 March 1840 – 19 August 1876) was a pioneering English Assyriologist who first discovered and translated the Epic of Gilgamesh, one of the oldest-known written works of literature. In March 1876, the trustees of the British Museum sent Smith once more to excavate the rest of the Library of Ashurbanipal. At İkizce, a small village about sixty miles northeast of Aleppo, he fell ill with dysentery. He died in Aleppo on 19 August.
