Jun 11

Jun 11 Is a River Alive?

About the book

Author: Robert Macfarlane
Publisher: W. W. Norton

More info:
The StoryGraph | Goodreads
Note: Content and trigger warnings are provided for those who need them at the bottom of this page. If you don’t need them and don’t want to risk spoilers, don’t scroll past the review.

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Bookshop.org (print or ebook) | Libro.fm (audio)

My Review

This was my first book by Robert Macfarlane, but it absolutely won’t be my last. I’m so excited to have an entire backlist of his full of nature writing of this caliber, holy smokes.

Is a River Alive? is part travelogue, part journalism, part essay, and (dare I say it) part poetry, chronicling the author’s journey along three rivers. One is in Ecuador, one is in India, and the last is in Canada. He wonders at the power of rivers and examines the idea of personhood in service of the “Rights of Nature” movement, in which activists fight to earn natural entities like rivers the same legal rights and protection as people (or corporations).

If you love nature writing, you simply must read this, and you must not rush it. Macfarlane’s prose is sumptuous and his sense of wonder is palpable. The introduction, especially, flows like poetry, begging to be read aloud — and while this would get exhausting if he’d attempted to sustain it for a whole book, he brings it back in just the right moments and quantities.

Pair this with the novel There Are Rivers in the Sky by Elif Shafak and go read it by a river. You’ll thank me.