There Are Rivers in the Sky by Elif Shafak

📖 Book review #5: A story of rivers, truths, and survival

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Iraq. A single noun with many interpretations. What does this word imply to you? Biblical lands, the cradle of civilization, and Mesopotamia( the land between two rivers) or terrorism, war, and oil (if you're bush). If you asked this question 50 years ago, you might have received answers coming straight from the Arabian Nights;

Oh, imagine a land, it's a faraway place
Where the caravan camels roam
Where you wander among every culture and tongue
It's chaotic, but, hey, it's home

When the wind's from the East
And the sun's from the West
And the sand in the glass is right
Come on down, stop on by
Hop a carpet and fly
To another Arabian night¹

Sure is the case with classical literature; fixating on Arabian steeds, Sinbad the sailor, camels, artifacts, archeological sites, etc, etc. But this was 50 years ago, and if the word Iraq is uttered in contemporary language, images of bombing, refugees, terrorism, and killing replace all that Iraq was once known for.

Bridging the gap between the past and the present, the ancient and the modern,

Elif Shafak

showcases both the beauty and the ugly, of Mesopotamia, the land between two rivers.

There Are Rivers in the Sky² is the newly released book by the author Elif Shafak, whose immersive writing style sucks you in through the first page, like a sponge absorbing water. From the river Thames to the river Tigris, and all the rivers in between, you are introduced to three characters whose lives are more connected than what first meets the eye. Zaleekhah is a 30-year-old soon-to-be divorcee whose interests in hydrology, specifically, conserving the world's hidden rivers, come as a surprise to everyone who knew her, considering her hidden past. Narin is a 9-year-old Yazidi girl who is soon to be deaf, but before that happens, there is a plan to baptize her in Iraq. And Arthur, or rather King Arthur of the Sewers and Slums is well suited to his name, considering his being born and raised in the Slums of Victorian London.

Separated by history, yet connected by Mesopotamia, two rivers, and a droplet of water, the story is told in a 3rd person narrative altering chapters through the 3 individuals. First, we meet Narin, a child living in Turkey in 2014 without a worry in the world. Her days consist of listening to her grandma's stories, and the sound of birds, beetles, wind, and sunshine on her face. That is of course, until she is diagnosed with a rare condition that will render her deaf in due time. Narins grandma plans on baptizing her and is adamant about taking little Narin to the holy Valley of Lalish in Iraq to be baptized. Unbeknownst to the two of them, Daesh, colloquially known as Isis, is a foot and soon the trip will take a turn of no return.

Arthur, we are introduced to since birth, born in 1840 by the river Thames in poverty and mud. What he lacks through poverty (which is much, not an understatement) is made up through his gifted mind. Arthur has a unique memory, so unique is it that it excels him in school, provides him a job, and paves the way to his soon-to-be infatuations; the tables of ancient Mesopotamia. But this memory, which has benefited him so much so far, could be nothing more than a double-edged sword, one he should wield carefully and cautiously...

And Zaleekhah, given an oriental name of a feisty woman, wife of Potiphar, (whose show I've seen more than ten times without exaggeration, and I'm rewatching it right now³) is anything but the woman she's named after. Meek, obedient, smart, and achieving, Zaleekhah always looking ahead, always walking through a safe path, finds herself amid a divorce she initiated, and soon in a houseboat by the river Thames. As she questions her present state, questions of the past rekindle, and doubts of a future if there be, plague her mind. Zaleekhah an ambitious water scientist, might plan to do more with water than just study it.

This book hits close to home, and I mean it literally. Not only am I Iraqi myself, but I'm in Iraq right now, by the river Tigris, reading about the rivers in the sky (or the sky in the rivers, is that why it's so blue?) I am so grateful to Shafak for sharing the Iraqi ancient culture, which I find is overlooked in society. Mesopotamia, the first crater of civilization, has a rich history, rich archaeology, and rich culture, yet it's not as popular by mainstream media as its neighboring countries of Egypt or Jerusalem.

Not many people know of Lamassu, colloquially known in Iraq as just babel(بابل, Babylon), a friend once calling him the bull with wings, yet everyone knows of King Tut, the pyramids, or the Dead Sea Scrolls. Lamassu did not go unnoticed in this book and the story of collapsed civilizations and lost languages was much appreciated.

Last year I was even lucky enough to view the Ziggurat of Ur, an over 4,000-year-old still-standing temple. It was a life-changing experience and had me questioning why few people know about this archeological site. Everything in the bBook was accurate and I was highly impressed with how thoroughly researched the information presented was. Shafak did not come to play and it was evident by how addicting of a read this new book was.

All through the book you are introduced to historical facts you otherwise would not have known, The Crystal Palace in London, Charles Dickens and his shenanigans, a hippopotamus named Obaysch, and of old London culture. Ancient history through the epic of Gilgamesh, a recurring poem that guides each character through their path, the origin of names( I would have never known that the name

Suleika Jaouad

of whom I read often, is also derived by the name Zuleikha, just as one of the main characters), and King Ashurbanipal. And yet even modern, facts ignored by the Public, such as Isis and their barbaric tactics.

*Spoiler Alert*

There is a last point that I could not let go which was little Narin. Oh Narin, oh my sweet angel girl. Reading her story was gut-wrenching. It is well-known what Isis did to the Yazidi community in Iraq. Just the other day, the wife of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of ISIS, was sentenced to death for her involvement in keeping Yazidi girls hostage in their home⁴. But nothing would make up for all that was lost and for all the Yazidi victims of the war who had it worse than any other minority group in Iraq. The men were killed. The women sold off. It was a barbaric unforgivable time and Shafak captured it well in telling Narin's story. She kept it realistic. As much as I had hoped, as much as I had yearned for a differing outcome for Narin, I knew the importance of telling the story how it is, how it goes. What happened to this fictional character, happened to tens of thousands of real Yazidi women, many of whom are held to bear their wounds on their own.

Narin was just 9 years old, yet this age is deemed the minimum age requirement for marriage. What the jihadist did and was condemned for, the government is trying to legalize with the excuse as freedom of expression. I've written about this law before, here. I've mentioned my grandma's story, the burden she holds, and what this law will lead to, but what's worse than all that, is how it's being accepted when anything but should be normalized. In my grandma's case, the argument is made that it was a long time ago, in the jihadist case, the argument was made that nobody supported them anyway, but in this case, in the passing of the law, child marriage is without exception being normalized. What's worse than a draconian law is a draconian law that infringes on girls' rights, yet everyone agrees with it.

Iraq has come a long way since 10 years ago, in 2014, when ISIS first came, but I fear that it is retracting and going back to the Stone Age. In sharing this, I hope to spread awareness of the soon-to-be victims of Iraq, just as Shafak has done through There Are Rivers in the Sky.

Through a drop of water, the Empire of Iraq collapsed and was rebuilt tens if not hundreds of times. From the time of King Ashurbanipal to the tumultuous birth of King Arthur, the baptizing of Narin, and the moving of Zaleekhah, Shafak captures this well, providing a timeline of a single drop of water, the memory it holds, and the story it tells. Through a drop, traveling through the ground, evaporating, and reentering the cycle, there will always be rivers in the sky.

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If you could not tell by now, I loved this book. I even place it now as number one of my favourite Shafak books, but that might be my Iraqi bias. I have not yet come to use stars in these reviews (though I know I should) but if I were to rate There Are Rivers in the Sky, then it definitely deserves 11/10 stars. I'll go read The Epic of Gilgamesh now, and drink lots of water.

1. Will Smith - Arabian Nights (2019) (From "Aladdin"/Audio Only)

2. https://amzn.to/4f03axv

3. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3084150/?ref_=ext_shr_lnk

4. https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c51y78nl13jo