…and thus her gift – the art of writing – will always represent a desire to efface dualities, dissolve hierarchies and transcend boundaries.
These words about Nisaba, an ancient goddess of writing, from the British-Turkish writer Elif Shafak’s new novel, There Are Rivers in the Sky, apply just as easily to the author. In this book, Shafak burnishes her reputation as a supreme storyteller. She displays profound wisdom and empathy, and encyclopaedic knowledge of the mythology of the part of the world in which she was raised. She enthrals us, all the while opening our eyes to how the sweep of nature, geography, culture, politics and religion have shaped humans throughout our history, influencing where we live, how we think, the ways in which we understand and, more often, misunderstand each other; whom we worship, love and hate.
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