DISCUSS: There Are Rivers in the Sky by Elif Shafak

A single raindrop links together four characters in ancient Mesopotamia, 1840 London, 2014 Turkey, and 2018 London. The raindrop first lands on the head of Ashurbanipal, the ruthless Assyrian king who owns the extensive library that includes the epic poem Gilgamesh. In Victorian London, the raindrop, now a snowflake, falls on Arthur, the son of an impoverished river scavenger. Arthur eventually decodes the clay tablets containing Gilgamesh. In modern-day Turkey, the raindrop, collected as rainwater, spills on Narin, a young Yazidi girl who lives on the banks of the Tigris, where she contends with her gradual hearing loss and religious persecution. In the form of a teardrop, the raindrop then settles upon Zaleekhah, a hydrologist who recently left her husband and lives on a houseboat in contemporary London. Drawing on historical events, Shafak vividly narrates the theft of artifacts, war, colonialism, environmental crises, and genocide.

(Goodreads: 4.34/5)

Discussion Guide: https://bookclubs.com/discussion-guides/there-are-rivers-in-the-sky-a-novel