Robert Macfarlane is a once-in-a-generation virtuoso, and I don't know when his kaleidoscopic language and world-expanding scholarship have been used to more potent effect than in this impassioned, resounding affirmative to the title's urgent question.--John Vaillant, author of Fire Weather

This book is itself a river of poetic prose, an invitation to get onboard and float through the rapids of encounters with places and people, the eddies of ideas, to navigate the resurgence of Indigenous worldviews through three extraordinary journeys recounted with a vividness that lifts readers out of themselves and into these waterscapes. Read it for pleasure, read it for illumination, read it for confirmation that our world is changing in wonderful as well as terrible ways.--Rebecca Solnit, author of Orwell's Roses

This book is a beautiful, wild exploration of an ancient idea: that rivers are living participants in a living world. Robert Macfarlane's astonishing telling of the lives of three rivers reveals how these vital flow forms have the power not only to shape and reshape the planet, but also our thoughts, feelings, and worldviews. Is a River Alive? is a breathtaking work that speaks powerfully to this moment of crisis and transformation.--Merlin Sheldrake, author of Entangled Life

Is a River Alive? is one of the best books I've read in a very long time--exciting, brilliantly comprehensive, mind-altering. In one of its many stunning moments, Macfarlane describes the myriad rivers trapped and buried under the concrete of our cities. 'Daylighting' occurs on those rare occasions when these ghost-rivers are dug out & released to the surface to feel the sun, to expand--majestic creatures--and spread life once again. To read this book is to feel your ghosted soul undergo such daylighting--metaphysical, political, emotional, linguistic. Any soul going dormant, any citizen going numb, will be revivified and propelled back to their essential core, where rage, wonder, and imagination intertwine, and a powerful hope for the earth arises. A spellbinding, life-changing work.--Jorie Graham, author of To 2040

Is a River Alive? is a beautifully written, poetic testament to the vitality of the Earth and the forms of politics that can be based upon that premise.--Amitav Ghosh, author of Sea of Poppies

Like its subject, Is a River Alive? is work of flow and counter-flow. It is lyrical, evocative, closely observed, and deeply moving. Robert Macfarlane offers new ways to think and, just as importantly, feel about the majestic and mysterious non-human world.--Elizabeth Kolbert, author of The Sixth Extinction

A rich and visionary work of immense beauty. Robert 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 with the world.--Elif Shafak, author of There Are Rivers in the Sky

Robert Macfarlane is a magician with words. His writing is like a vortex ... once caught, you're pulled deeper and deeper with each page.--Andrea Wulf, author of The Invention of Nature

One of the big publishing events (if not the biggest) of 2025--a new book by Robert Macfarlane ... Personal as well as political, Is a River Alive? is almost as certain to shift readerly perspectives as it is to be a bestseller.-- "Guardian"

Robert Macfarlane is one of earth's keenest celebrants.--Diane Ackerman, author of The Zookeeper's Wife

Robert Macfarlane's writing reminds us of the astonishing variety of things you can see when you go at walking speed, and of how strange and rich the world is.--Phillip Pullman, author of the His Dark Materials trilogy

Are rivers alive? Macfarlane delivers a lucid, memorable argument in the affirmative. ... In delightfully eccentric company and guided by the wisdom of an Indigenous woman ... Macfarlane travels through territory so rugged that 'even the trout have portage trails, ' returning with hard-won wisdom about our evanescence and, one hopes, a river's permanence and power to shape our lives for the better.--Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

A lyrical inquiry into the implications of treating rivers as living beings worthy of reverence and legal rights. ... Macfarlane skillfully braids his immersive travel writing with illuminating historical background, all told in lithe prose. Nature lovers will be riveted.--Publishers Weekly (starred review)

The arguments for nature's rights, the drama of [Macfarlane's] encounters, the crimes against rivers and all that they nurture, and the valor, genius, and uncanny gifts of eco-activists are all conveyed in gorgeously vibrant, fresh, and gripping language. The result is a ravishing and enlightening inquiry shaped by hydropoetics and a deeply considered commitment to rejuvenating, cherishing, and protecting rivers and all of nature.--Donna Seaman, Booklist (starred review)

Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company

Pub date: 2025-05-20

Length: 384 pages