A review by jessdekkerreads
There Are Rivers in the Sky by Elif Shafak

3.5

I read and enjoyed The Island of Missing Trees in 2021 

 

The breadth of this novel was impressive. If you’re patient with this novel, you’ll learn about three different characters in three different time periods, from Mesopotamia to Turkey, from the 1800s to 2014, and how water (and poetry) connects all three of them. And, like water itself, which is trapped and never able to settle, so too are these characters - immigrants, the displaced, but also like water, they are resilient. 

 

These characters have suffered so much trauma, displacement, exile, genocide, poverty, diaspora, and more. I felt for each one. 

 

This novel presents the questions: how do we make our ancestors proud? What (or who) makes a home? When we are gone, what is left of us? Who is allowed to share our stories? How do we maintain our humanity when it seems all hope is lost? 

 

 

Recommend to fans of historical fiction; Anthony Doerr’s novels, and Maggie O’Farrell’s writing. 

 

**Out by @knopf on August 20