Description

The new novel from the Booker-shortlisted, internationally bestselling author of The Island of Missing Trees and 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World

*****

There Are Rivers in the Sky is a rich, sweeping novel set between the 19th century and modern times, about love and loss, memory and erasure, hurt and healing, centred around three enchanting characters living on the banks of the River Thames and the River Tigris – their lives all curiously touched by the epic of Gilgamesh.

*****

WINNER OF THE GORDON BOWKER PRIZE 2025
WINNER OF THE INAUGURAL GOOD HOUSEKEEPING GOOD BOOKS SPRING COLLECTION
FINALIST FOR THE ORWELL PRIZE FOR POLITICAL FICTION

‘Elif Shafak is a unique and powerful voice in world literature’ Ian McEwan

‘Shafak makes a new home for us in words’ Colum McCann

‘One of the best writers in the world today’ Hanif Kureishi

Publisher Review

It will make you think, cry, rage - and hope. It is Elif Shafak at her best * The New Statesman * Gloriously expansive and intellectually rich... a magnificent achievement * The Spectator * Richly evocative. A fascinating stream of storytelling. * Financial Times * Engrossing. I turned the pages hungrily, carried by Shafak's energetic prose and confident that it was heading towards a coherent and rewarding ending. As ever, Shafak did not disappoint. * I Paper * An absorbing novel. Shafak is a novelist whose interest in mapping the intricately related world and its history goes beyond literary device. * Guardian * Elif Shafak is a unique and powerful voice in world literature -- Ian McEwan Shafak makes a new home for us in words -- Colum McCann A writer of important, beautiful, painful, truthful novels -- Marian Keyes A brilliant, unforgettable novel, which raises big ideas of 'who owns the past' with nuance and complexity. Elif Shafak ties together diverse time periods and places in a way that seems both natural and wonderfully unexpected. -- Mary Beard Bright, vivid and timeless like rivers. -- Philippa Gregory