by Elif Shafak
Water remembers. It is humans who forget.
Wednesday, November 19, 2025
Discussion at 1pm
This is the story of one lost poem, two great rivers, and three remarkable lives – all connected by a single drop of water.
In the ruins of Nineveh, that ancient city of Mesopotamia, there lies hidden in the sand fragments of a long-forgotten poem, the Epic of Gilgamesh. In Victorian London, an extraordinary child is born at the edge of the dirt-black Thames. Arthur’s only chance of escaping poverty is his brilliant memory. In 2014 Turkey, Narin, a Yazidi girl, and her grandmother are living by the River Tigris when they must to journey across war-torn lands in the hope of reaching the sacred valley of their people. In 2018 London, broken-hearted Zaleekhah, a hydrologist, foresees a life drained of all love and meaning – until an unexpected connection to her homeland changes everything. (From the publisher.)
*Note the content warnings at bottom of this post.
Copies available to borrow are at the library. If you wish to own a copy, Gibson's in Concord and MainStreet BookEnds in Warner will graciously offer a discount for our book group.
some things below may contain spoilers
Resources for the book:
- Author's website.
- Flip through the 1854 book Nineveh and Its Remains in e-book version: Volume 1 and Volume 2.
- I definitely recommend that you browse the reader's guide at book blogger Kate's Marmelade and Mustardseed website. In particular, Kate has great resources about:
- daylighting
- the Yazidi people
- a video conversation with the author
- a helpful character list
- The British Museum has a lot to say, naturally, on Nineveh and Ashurbanipal's Library.
- Start with Introducing the Assyrians, including photos of the lamassus
- At the bottom of that page, you can find links to the British Museum's pages on Ashurbanipal and his Library, how to write cuneiform, a travel guide to 7th century Nineveh, and more
- BBC article on the Lalish temple
- Dam project
- The Exhibition of 1851
- An essay about grief in Gilgamesh (also a theme in There Are Rivers)
- Learn about Cuneiform on YouTube: history and significance and a demonstration
- Houseboats on the Thames at Chelsea
PSA: 988 is the suicide and crisis lifeline "No judgment. Just help." Call or text just those 3 digits 9-8-8 anytime. The lifeline is there to support people actively in crisis, but also people grieving a loss, people experiencing depression or anxiety, or people who just have questions or want to see how the lifeline works for future reference.
Beyond the Book:
- The Great Courses (educational video/audio series) Ancient Mesopotamia: Life in the Cradle of Civilization series has an episode on Ashurbanipal's Library and Gilgamesh (Episode 21). You can access that through the library subscription to hoopla. It's hard to find - try this: on your computer or phone, log into hoopla, then come back to this page and try this link. Scroll to ep. 21 and borrow that episode (or others, too!).
- Related Current Events
- September 2025 - colossal Lamassu found
- Yazidi Genocide advocacy institution
Keep reading:
- Moudhy Al-Rashid's 2025 book Between Two Rivers: Ancient Mesopotamia and the Birth of History is an interesting historiography (history of how we tell history) based on several artifacts from the first civilizations around the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers. There is also an in-depth discussion with the author here. HTL has this book.
- You can read the Epic of Gilgamesh e-book here but I recommend instead/also reading a more modern version, like the 2004 one by Stephen Mitchell (I can ILL it for you). Or, if you just want to know the story, you can watch this TED-Ed video summary.
- Elif Shafak's other books.
*Content Warning: The book contains references to or descriptions of genocide, racism, sexual violence, enslavement, domestic and child abuse, addiction, a disease epidemic, death by suicide, and deaths of loved ones.
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