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Is a River Alive?

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Is a River Alive?

By: Robert Macfarlane
Narrated by: Robert Macfarlane
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About this listen

Brought to you by Penguin.

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 listener 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 Robert Macfarlane (P)2025 Penguin Audio Ecosystems & Habitats Environment Natural Resources Nature & Ecology Outdoors & Nature Politics & Government Science

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Critic reviews

A rich and visionary work of immense beauty. 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 (Elif Shafak)
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)
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)
Profound and playful, revelatory and realistic, intimate and epic, humble and absolutely huge – this supremely enjoyable masterpiece will change the world (Patrick Barkham)
In answering this essential question of matter or life-force, Macfarlane has created a braided, roaring and brilliant book that is a true landmark in more-than-human writing . . . A personal and beautifully poetic polemic, this may be Macfarlane’s best book yet (Rob Cowen)
Shattering and sublime, Is a River Alive? offers a question, an answer, and perhaps the greatest challenge and opportunity of our times: to accept our place in the mesh of things and act accordingly in the interests of the whole (Amy Jane Beer)
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)
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)
All stars
Most relevant  
Three contrasting and poetic portraits on the impact of capitalist societies on world’s river systems. This old school rationalist couldn’t quite accompany the illustrious author on all his natural mystic flights, but excellent nonetheless.

Natural Mystic

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I have listened to Robert Macfarlane reading all of his books over the years, as I work in my craft studio weaving. His storytelling of the lands and spaces he encounters is always transformative and transporting, as he describes, senses, and bears witness to time and its passage over the landscape through his personal encounters and wider historical contexts. Is a River Alive? goes so vulnerably deep into his personal narrative to be intimate, therapeutic and immediate; we ride the rapids with him, and are moved to tears by the end. A very beautiful and powerful watery story for our times.

A masterful story of real connection, vision and purpose

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I love MacFarlane's poetic descriptions of sound and sights. This is a heartbreaking tale of the slow deaths of rivers with just a touch of hope that people and their governments will move to act and save these water bodies and all the lives they intertwine with.

Poetry

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Macfarlane does it again! He has helped me to see the world, and ourselves, in a different way. Thank you for sharing your awe, passion and wonder for life. This book is full of truth and beauty. I will never look at a river in the same way.

Listening to Being

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Great book covering the current challenges facing the natural world. The author transports you to the places and people covered in the stories, who are at the forefront of these challanges. He manages to do this whilst amazingly, delivering the relaxing escape I was looking for in the book.

Great book.

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As fantastic as we have come to expect from MacFarlane. I think this might be the first audiobook narrated by the author himself, which made it even more special!

Flowed with magic

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The writing is deliciously but devastatingly evocative and brings the impact of what is happening slamming into you heart.
As someone who has spent much of my life in water, this is a visceral read and I defy anyone not to be moved by it

Devastatingly evocative

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Lyrical reading and passionate at times. Thoroughly recommend. Educational but enjoyable. Even better if you like Johnny flynn and Wet Leg!

Beautifully read by the author

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