There Are Rivers in the Sky

by Elif Shafak

Not that this will be the first time: it has made the journey before—ascending to the sky, descending to terra firma and rising heavenwards again—and yet it still finds the fall terrifying.

For the king knows that in order to dominate other cultures, you must capture not only their lands, crops and assets but also their collective imagination, their shared memories.

Then she has to bring up the story of Zuleikha. A conniving she-devil, as described by all Abrahamic faiths. The salacious wife of Potiphar, fiery and tempestuous; a combination of virago, witch and whore, if there ever was one. A seductress who lusted after the handsome and virtuous Joseph and, propelled by feminine wiles and unholy desires, tried to lure him into her bed. For her sins, God turned her into an ugly crone and wizened widow, and kept her like that until she repented of her ways. When sufficiently docile and obedient, she was rewarded with her former youth and beauty and given permission to marry Joseph, after which she never erred again.

Her father—a gentle soul, proud of his own Irish heritage—went along with his wife’s wishes, as usual. So they named their only child after a biblical femme fatale, all charm and wild passion.

Her boat is berthed at the river’s edge, tethered next to an aged oak, whose crooked trunk throws its canopy out over the water. Zaleekhah knows that trees bent in this way often snap or break from their roots, but this one has managed to survive, despite its quirky shape and inhospitable location. She wonders how old the tree is, and what strange things it may have witnessed in its long life—but, then again, she is used to asking questions that have no apparent answers.

Water hardens in adverse circumstances, not unlike the human heart.

Water is the consummate immigrant, trapped in transit, never able to settle.

Even after all these years of studying it, water never ceases to surprise her, astonishingly resilient but also acutely vulnerable—a