Book Club - "There Are Rivers in the Sky" by Elif Shafak

“Water remembers. It is humans who forget.”

In this novel, memory flows like water - and water becomes both witness and archive, carrying forgotten voices across centuries, erased by colonialism, of cultures stolen and silenced.

Shafak asks us to reflect: what survives when stories are threatened with silence? And can memory - fragile as a drop of rain - also be timeless, enduring as a river?

This is a novel about the interconnectedness of humanity, through myth and history, exile and return, the resilience of marginalized communities, and the eternal search for identity in a world that is always moving, always forgetting... but the lives we carry within us are never truly lost.

Genres: Literary Fiction, Historical, Magical Realism, Contemporary
Pages: ~464, paperback

Looking forward to a conversation about ancestry, belonging, and the rivers - seen and unseen - that bind us all.

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#### 🧷 Book Club Guidelines

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• Please read the entire book - Summaries or cover blurbs don’t count.
• Only attend if you’re on the attendee list.
• Listen actively, without interrupting.
• Engage with ideas, not individuals. We’re here to explore, not to argue.
• Stay present - phones away, attention in the room with physical people.
• Avoid no-shows and last-minute dropouts - they take a spot from someone else.

↳ If this happens, please get in touch, otherwise you’ll be removed from the next meetup.
↳ If repeated, you may be removed from the group.

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#### 💶 Participation Fee

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A €5 organizational fee (incl. Platform fee + rent) is kindly requested 2 weeks before each meetup.

↳ If you have PayPal, please transfer it in advance here.
↳ If not, you can bring cash and place it in the donation cup before we begin.

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#### 🚫 Respect & Community Integrity

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This is a community we build together - not a commercial service we consume, but a shared safe space grounded in mutual respect and trust.

Harassment or insults of any kind - whether in-person or online - based on culture, religion, profession, or identity will result in an immediate ban.

Similarly, failing to pay the fee (which covers rent, platform, and organizational costs) after committing to do so undermines that trust and shared responsibility. It will result in exclusion from future meetups.