Robert Macfarlane is Professor of Literature and the Environmental Humanities at the Faculty of English in Cambridge. He is well-known as a
writer about nature, climate, landscape, people and place, and his books –– which include
Underland (2019), a book-length prose-poem
Ness (2018),
Landmarks (2015),
The Old Ways (2012) and
Mountains of the Mind (2003) –– have been translated into more than thirty languages, won prizes around the world, and been widely adapted for music, film, television, radio and theatre.
Macfarlane's new book,
Is a River Alive?, is his most personal and political work to date.
At the Waterstones blog the author tagged "
five books that present the complexity and importance of rivers through both fiction and non-fiction." One title on the list:
There Are Rivers In The Sky by Elif Shafak
In Shafak’s beautiful, sweeping novel, three river-stories flow and braid with one another across cultures, landscapes and centuries –– from ancient Mesopotamia to Victorian London and modern Turkey. The Thames and the Tigris are at this book’s heart, and the third great current is the Epic of Gilgamesh itself, a story powerful enough to carry readers and characters onwards, and to set history itself aswirl. This hugely popular novel has already found its way into the hearts of hundreds of thousands of readers: water, connection and compassion are its keynotes.
Read about
another entry on the list.
--Marshal Zeringue
Posts
