Is a River Alive

Macfarlane, Robert

ISBN 10: 0241624819 / ISBN 13: 9780241624814

Published by Hamish, London, 2025

About this Item

[i-ix].374pp. 8vo. Paper over boards, stamped spine and front boards in silver. Book is a British first edition/printing with the number 001 on the copyright page. The author has signed his name on a publisher's special tipped-in page. Book is unread, unmarked, unclipped, tight, bright, and the jacket has an archival protector. Gift quality. Author's earlier bestselling book was "Underland: A Deep Time Journey." From promotional material: "Macfarlane takes readers on three unforgettable journeys teeming with extraordinary people, stories, and places: to the miraculous cloud-forests and mountain streams of Ecuador, to the wounded creeks and lagoons of India, and to the spectacular wild rivers of Canada imperiled respectively by mining, pollution, and dams. Braiding these journeys is the life story of the fragile chalk stream a mile from Macfarlane s house, a stream who flows through his own years and days.".

Seller Inventory # 0004832

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Is a River Alive
• Publisher: Hamish, London
• Publication Date: 2025
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0241624819
• ISBN 13: 9780241624814
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: First edition. First Printing.
• Condition: Fine
• Dust Jacket Condition: fine
• Signed: Signed by Author(s)
• Seller catalogs:
  • Nature

About this title

Synopsis

From the celebrated writer and observer 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 that rivers are not mere matter for human use, but living beings – who should be recognized as such in both imagination and law. Inspired by the activists, artists and lawmakers of the young ‘Rights of Nature’ movement, Macfarlane takes the reader on an exhilarating exploration of the past, present and futures of this ancient, urgent concept.

Is a River Alive? flows like water from the mountains to the sea, over three major journeys:
The first is to northern Ecuador, where a miraculous cloud-forest and its rivers are threatened with destruction by gold-mining.

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

The third is 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.

Braiding these journeys is the life story of the fragile chalk stream who rises a mile from Macfarlane’s house, and flows through his own years and days.

Passionate, immersive and revelatory, Is a River Alive? is at once Macfarlane’s most personal and most political book to date. It is a book that will open hearts, spark debates and challenge perspectives. Lit throughout by other minds and voices, it invites us radically to reimagine not only rivers but also life itself. At the centre of this vital, beautiful book is the recognition that our fate flows with that of rivers – and always has.