SED Artist

There are rivers in the sky by Elif Shafak

My first novel by this most amazing writer !

Poetry rings throughout every chapter. 

It is a novel of great importance,

Any day,

But today of all days. 

Reuniting people despite religion and geography.

Bonding us all,

Through water 

And forgotten rivers 

It is a novel of beauty, of heartbreak, devastation, hope and memory. 

It is a wedding band, binding us to being better, in vain of our past. 

It reminds us of our humility, our empathy, and our gentleness, and to share it with those near and far. 

It is a love letter to our planet, in the most spiritual and powerful of ways. 

It is a warning, reminding us to take care of the ressources offered to us. They are not ours to take and exploit, but ours to share.

It is a reminder to love, to seek and to devote. 

It is a story of water that collides and collapses us through Time and Suffering; a deep dive into the hidden parts of history that we must try our best to remember. 

Here are some quotes I love, that I think you might too: 

“Remember, my heart. Story-time is different from clock-time.’ Clock time however punctual it may purport to be, is distorted and deceptive. It runs under the illusion that everything is moving steadily forward, and the future, therefore, will always be better than the past. Story-time understands the fragility of peace, the fickleness of circumstances, the dangers lurking in the night but-also appreciates small acts of kindness. That is why minorities do not live in clock time.”

“You think the earth is a tub of yogurt?

Oh, definitely… It ferments, it thickens, and, although it is solid now, it can never forget that it was once liquid.

What does that mean?’

It means it’s still roiling inside. We don’t hear it but there’s water underneath, churning. There are cycles in nature, cycles in history. We call them dewr. Between the end of an era and the beginning of a new one, there’s always a period of confusion, and those are the hardest times, may God help us all’ Are we now in one of those periods?’

I think so, that’s why we must carefully study the past. The stories of our ancestors are the roots that hold us up through tempests and high winds.”

“Oh, Euphrates says, “But you’re mistaken about me. If you only knew how difficult it is to be calm and composed. If you only knew, it takes a fierce fight inside to remain peaceful on the outside.”

What does that mean?’

That tranquillity does not come easily?’”

“Even if years passed, or centuries, and not a single original molecule remained, each droplet of water maintained a unique structure, distinguishable from the next, marked forever by what it once contained. Water, in other words, remembered.”

“Home is where your loved ones are, but the reverse is also true. Those you love are your sanctuary, your shelter, your country and even, when it comes to that, your exile. Wherever they go, you will follow.”

“Sometimes even rivers have to migrate from their beds.”

“People think a tattoo is an act of rebellion or something, but, actually it’s a form of storytelling.

That’s what most customers come in for – not just some random image or word in ink. They come because they have a story to tell.”

“But the abuse of natural resources, the lust for power and dominance, and endless rivalries led to the decline of cities, and then came famine, flood and drought.“