SHORTLISTED FOR BLACKWELL'S BOOK OF THE YEAR 2025
SHORTLISTED FOR THE WAINWRIGHT PRIZE FOR CONSERVATION WRITING 2025
SHORTLISTED FOR THE INDIE BOOK AWARDS 2026

From celebrated writer Robert Macfarlane comes this brilliant, perspective-shifting new book – which answers a resounding yes to the question of its title.

At its heart is a single, transformative idea: that rivers are not mere matter for human use, but living beings – who should be recognized as such in both imagination and law. Is a River Alive? takes the reader on an exhilarating exploration of the past, present and futures of this ancient, urgent concept.

The book flows first to northern Ecuador, where a miraculous cloud-forest and its rivers are threatened by goldmining.

Then, to the wounded rivers, creeks and lagoons of southern India, where a desperate battle to save the lives of these waterbodies is under way.

And finally, to north-eastern Quebec, where a spectacular wild river – the Mutehekau or Magpie – is being defended from death by damming in a river-rights campaign.

At once Macfarlane’s most personal and most political book to date, Is a River Alive? will open hearts, spark debates and lead us to the revelation that our fate flows with that of rivers – and always has.

2025 BOOK OF THE YEAR ACCORDING TO SPECTATOR, I PAPER, ECONOMIST, ESQUIRE, TIME

SHORTLISTED FOR THE EDWARD STANFORD TRAVEL BOOK OF THE YEAR 2026
SHORTLISTED FOR THE SHERBORNE PRIZE FOR TRAVEL WRITING 2026
LONGLISTED FOR THE RSL ONDAATJE PRIZE 2026

A WATERSTONES PAPERBACK OF THE YEAR 2026
SHORTLISTED FOR BLACKWELL'S BOOK OF THE YEAR 2025
SHORTLISTED FOR THE WAINWRIGHT PRIZE FOR CONSERVATION WRITING 2025
SHORTLISTED FOR THE INDIE BOOK AWARDS 2026

From celebrated writer Robert Macfarlane comes this brilliant, perspective-shifting new book – which answers a resounding yes to the question of its title.

At its heart is a single, transformative idea: that rivers are not mere matter for human use, but living beings – who should be recognized as such in both imagination and law. Is a River Alive? takes the reader on an exhilarating exploration of the past, present and futures of this ancient, urgent concept.

The book flows first to northern Ecuador, where a miraculous cloud-forest and its rivers are threatened by goldmining.

Then, to the wounded rivers, creeks and lagoons of southern India, where a desperate battle to save the lives of these waterbodies is under way.

And finally, to north-eastern Quebec, where a spectacular wild river – the Mutehekau or Magpie – is being defended from death by damming in a river-rights campaign.

At once Macfarlane’s most personal and most political book to date, Is a River Alive? will open hearts, spark debates and lead us to the revelation that our fate flows with that of rivers – and always has.

2025 BOOK OF THE YEAR ACCORDING TO SPECTATOR, I PAPER, ECONOMIST, ESQUIRE, TIME

SHORTLISTED FOR THE EDWARD STANFORD TRAVEL BOOK OF THE YEAR 2026
SHORTLISTED FOR THE SHERBORNE PRIZE FOR TRAVEL WRITING 2026
LONGLISTED FOR THE RSL ONDAATJE PRIZE 2026

'History at its most scintillating' Nicholas Crane

Rivers are the great natural arteries that run through our lives.

We have navigated them, dammed them and worshipped at them. From the ancient ecosystems of Egypt to the sinking cities of Shanghai and London, what we do with our rivers tells us about who has power and what we value. Now, when a passion for wild swimming is flourishing but the Amazon is on fire and some of our major river systems are dying, it has never been clearer that rivers are intertwined with humanity at our best and our worst.

Seven Rivers is story of the Nile, Danube, Niger, Mississippi, Ganges, Yangtze and the Thames. It is a story of imperial frontiers, alluvial gold, kidnappings, slavery, anticolonialism and creation myths. It is about those who've lived and died on these rivers and their endless capacity for invention: their lotus pools and hanging gardens, their gigantic canal systems and elaborate fishing rituals, their absolute powers and their sly rebellions. At its heart are the empire-builders of the Chinese dynasties, Romans and Hindus and their river gods, the Habsburgs and Ottomans, Mughal emperors, the people of the Niger from Mali's golden age to today, struggles of life and death on the Mississippi, and the dethroning of the British on the rivers of their unruly imperial subjects.

This is the story of us, in seven rivers.