London observed through the eyes of an Egyptian
A novel of water set in MESOPOTAMIA, TÜRKIYE and LONDON
6th March 2025
There are Rivers in the Sky by Elif Shafak, a novel of water set in Mesopotamia, Türkiye, and London.
WINNER OF THE EDWARD STANFORD TRAVEL WRITING AWARDS 2025 – FICTION WITH A SENSE OF PLACE
An ambitious, sweeping novel, with water at its heart.
“The story of humanity cannot be written without the story of water…”
The novel is set in various different time periods and opens in “olden times” in Nineveh, the capital of Mesopotamia, capital of the Assyrian Empire. There is a snapshot of life under King Ashurbanipal and a single droplet of water that falls into the King’s hair, from where it is witness to his sadistic atrocities. It sounds odd but it works.
The Stanford’s shortlist
The scene is set and more stories evolve, all linked by water which is fundamental to earth’s existence. Water moves through time, linking times and people, histories and lands. The lamassu – winged creatures with the body of a bull and three legs for stability at the front – keep guard over King Ashurbanipal’s court and soon we encounter them again as they land as spoils in the middle of the 19th Century in London. The arrival at the British Museum of “a creature plucked from another world” is observed by a young man “King Arthur of the Sewers and Slums”, a poor but incredibly intelligent boy, who resolves one day to visit the country from whence they came. These Mesopotamian treasures, when they were first discovered, were belittled in scholarly circles but King Arthur clearly can clearly see their merit. And in choosing Mesopotamia as a location, the author already has an aquatic link – in Greek Mesopotamia means between two rivers.
2014 the connection to the Yazidi community is forged and an exploration of their vilification over the centuries is highlighted. King Arthur comes to discover that these shunned “devil worshippers”, singled out for ‘otherness’ are very approachable, ordinary human beings trying to eke out a life. He is taken aback at their persecution and dwells on the destruction that one section of humanity can inflict on another. The story, therefore, has clearly discernible universal messages.
TF’s Tina with Elif Shafak at the Stanford’s awards evening
In 2018, again in London, Zaleekah is put in the spotlight. She is a hydrologist and her marriage has just broken down and she herself has suicidal ideation. She takes a temporary let on a houseboat in Chelsea and fumbles her way forward in life.
There is an incredible level of research in this novel, which is educative and thought-provoking. The writing, as ever, is superlative. Sometimes there was a touch of information overload – the author had done so much investigative work on water, whether it is around buried rivers in London, dams in Turkey and the effect on people of polluted waters, the vagaries of Victorian London – and then taken her findings and fed them together to create the narrative. Much learning can be had from this novel whilst appreciating superlative writing.
Tina for the TripFiction Team
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