The Book That Found Me By Chance and Changed me

"People fall into three camps: those who hardly, if ever, see beauty, even when it strikes them between the eyes; those who recognize it only when it is made apparent to them; and those rare souls who find beauty everywhere they turn, even in the most unexpected places.”― Elif Shafak, There Are Rivers in the Sky

I picked this book entirely by chance. My workplace decided to treat us to these gift vouchers, and I thought it was an amazing opportunity to get some more books (like 50ish titles sitting on my shelves waiting to be read aren’t enough). And so, I went to one of the Parisian bookstores that accepts such things and there it was in the small English section.  I didn’t know anything about the book nor about the author, but the title caught my eye. As it turned out, it was a remarkable catch. I’m not sure if I’ll make top 10 or top 20 for this year, since I am new in this but if I do, There Are Rivers in the Sky will find its place among my 5 favourite reads in 2025.

A savant boy born in the slums of Victorian London. An erudite but brutal Neo Assyrian king from the seventh century BCE. A nearly deaf twelve-year-old Yazidi girl who adores and sees her grandmother as the most knowledgeable person in the world. An ancient epic about life and mortality, sexuality and friendship. A hydrologist in present day London going through a divorce and feeling like her whole world is turning into a rubble. At first glance nothing seems to connect these characters. However, once you dive deeper in the novel you can easily see how exquisitely Shafak weaves these lives together into a story about oppression and marginalization, memory and erasure, and love and loss across and beyond the boundaries of time.

 This journey begins in ancient Mesopotamia which is at that time under the rule of king Ashurbanipal, a ruler widely known for his cruelty. But Ashurbanipal enjoyed literature and in Niniveh (today’s Iraq) he had a luxurious library with multitude of clay tablets. Among them lies a hidden gem, an exceptional manuscript on an even more exceptional stone – lapis, lazuli.

Fast forward to Victorian era London in a Dickensian tradition, the author introduces us to the life of a boy born among the scavengers, in the muck of river Thames. Named Arthur the King of Slums and Sewers, a destitute boy is gifted with unusual memory, thirst for knowledge and fascination for Mesopotamian deity lamassu and lapis lazuli.  Arthur’s trajectory is nothing short of obstacles, but his talents will take him to success and places beyond his imagination.

Further on, we again take a leap in time and find ourselves in 2014, in Turkey. This time we are given the chance to learn about beautiful but horribly misunderstood Yazidi culture, through the perspective of Narin, a 12-year-old girl. Her story begins with a significant event in a life of a Yazidi person that gets violently interrupted by Turkish capitalists rapidly gentrifying the region thus destroying the environment and with it everything precious to Yazidi culture. Yazidis are an ethnic minority predominantly located in Turkey, Syria, Iraq and Iran. Given that they don’t practice any of five dominant religions they carry the stigma of “devil worshiping” and are exposed to systematic and systemic persecution and oppression. Narin’s mother died giving birth and her father is a traveling qanun virtuoso unable to face the loss hence leaving Narin with her grandmother. As it is becoming increasingly obvious that the ritual cannot be performed in Turkey, Narin’s grandmother decides to take her on an exciting but dangerous journey to Iraq. Her wish is for the ritual to be performed in the river Tigris following the tradition.

Vicotrian Era London

We then go to London. It is the year 2018 and we meet Zaleekah, a 31-year-old hydrologist whose life gets completely uprooted when she decides to leave an unhappy marriage and move into a boat on Thames. Zaleekah is an orphan – her parents have died in a tragic accident involving water which makes her career path even more extraordinary. She is raised by her rich uncle and aunt who love her as their own daughter. Despite that Zaleekah is on the brink of despair and doesn’t feel like she belongs in their world. Meeting with a houseboat owner and tattoo artist will be a turning point in Zaleekah’s life.

 At the end, I can only say that I’ve been inspired and influenced by many books, and I know there will be many others that touch me deeply. But it’s not often that I find myself closing a book with tears running down my cheeks — as I did with There Are Rivers in the Sky.  Some books are like that – not only that they are page turners, but they change you in least expected ways and leave you profoundly moved.