Is a River Alive?

Reviews / Votes

Everyone who has ever found something to love in a river should find something to love in this book. It is a masterpiece * The Economist * One of the big publishing events (if not the biggest) of 2025 - a new book by Robert Macfarlane . . . Personal as well as political, it's almost as certain to shift readerly perspectives as it is to be a bestseller * Observer, 'Nonfiction to look forward to in 2025' * The book is a delight . . . So stirring, so surprising, so acute * The Times * Is a River Alive? is a powerful synthesis of literature, activism and ethics, reshaping the way we perceive the natural world -- Alex Preston * Observer * The narrative pull is strong in this book. I kept wanting to go back to it. Macfarlane has yet again demonstrated his genius as an author in creating a book that is alive, that has personality, that talked to me. I was sad when it ended. It has flowed into my daily thoughts ever since, much like a river continues to flow into the sea * Evening Standard * Beautiful, wild and wildly provocative * New Scientist * Macfarlane confronts the realities of the living, beating heart of the riverine world . . . With crystalline clarity and force, Macfarlane confronts the gross failure of our existing laws to protect rivers from harm . . . Such ideas are brought to life by the quality of the writing, the evocation of mood and place, the raw smells and energies that accompany Macfarlane, whether on a gentle walk into a Cambridge wood, or hurtling with mortal speed down a Canadian rapid * Financial Times * It will change the way you think about rivers, and in turn, nature herself * iPaper * Impassioned and invigorating . . . Macfarlane is erudite and eclectic, and, though charismatic, doesn't press his presence upon you. His books are adventurous, often involving truly remarkable companions; and at the sentence level no one could accuse him of painting by numbers . . . * Spectator * A rich and visionary work of immense beauty. Macfarlane is a memory keeper. What is broken in our societies, he mends with words. Rarely does a book hold such power, passion, and poetry in its exploration of nature. Read this to feel inspired, moved, and ultimately, alive -- Elif Shafak