There Are Rivers in the Sky | Elif Shafak

I often judge a book by its cover, and its title. So I immediately reached for this on the library's "best seller" shelf. And then I saw the all-star lineup of blurbs on the back: Ruth Ozeki, Safiya Sinclair, Mary Beard, Viet Thang Nguyen, Philippa Gregory, Arundhati Roy. And it's historical fiction. Sold! Spoiler alert--it's a good book. Not a fast read but a compelling story.

The story follows a drop of water from Mesopotamia to recent-day London, as told through the stories of three characters--Arthur Smyth, Narin and Dr. Zaleekhah Clarke. Smyth is based on a real person in mid-1800s (contemporary of Dickens) who, though born in a slum along the River Thames and with a spotty education, becomes a renowned specialist in Mesopotamia. He has a special condition that gives him an incredible memory and the ability to see patterns that others can't. His gifts put him in the path of leaders at the British Museum where he cracks the language on ancient tablets that contain the poem, Epic of Gilgamesh. Narin is a young Yazidi girl, living in Turkey by the River Tigris during the end of the Saddam years. Zaleekhah is a hydrologist in London in 2018, living on a houseboat on the River Thames after her marriage falls apart, with a backstory that includes roots in Turkey. Arthur's story is the most richly detailed and I found it the most satisfying to read. Narin's is a bit thin, although she plays an important role at the end. Zaleekhah's story connects the dots and is strong since it ties the whole thing together. She's the most emotionally accessible character, partly because it's more current and partly because she just puts it all out there. Themes of ecology, family, mental health, persecution are woven throughout and across the long timeframe of the narrative.

Shafak has an almost poetic writing style that's put to good use telling these ancient stories. She details her research for the book at the end, and you definitely come away with a better understanding of the region.