Tournament of Books discussion

A thread for discussing Elif Shafak's novel "There Are Rivers in the Sky."

I finished Rivers this morning. An amazing and beautiful book. I'm still processing it all.

It is really lovely! I am not sure the connective tissue of the 'water drop' worked super well to make the three stories jive with each other, but I found the writing very engaging and each story was interesting in its own way.

I’m sorry to say I DNF this, which is rare for me. I feel like I have a pretty high tolerance for suspension of disbelief, but the sentient raindrop that stayed in the king’s hair for at least 10 minutes after falling, followed by the newborn baby remembering its birth, were too much for me.

I am on team this-book-was-pretty-great-and-beautiful and also on team-man-that-raindrop-bit-was-kinda-dumb.

I totally understand what the author was trying to do with the raindrop idea, but it felt contrived. The book would have been just as good without it.

This was my last book finished. I liked it but didn't love it (4 stars). I'll add to the chorus that the water drop thing didn't work for me. I think Arthur was my favorite character, a passionate weirdo.

Yes! I adored Arthur and would have been happy if the book was solely about him.

I read this book when it came out last July, and I still think about it regularly. I had no idea that some of these things were accurate historical events that I've lived through... just very impactful for me.

Everyone I know read this one and I have, for some unknown reason, avoided it. I guess I'm going to have to now because I simply must weigh in on the raindrop.