Guest blog by Dr. Ruchi Shree

Is a River Alive? (By Robert Macfarlane, 2025, Hamish Hamilton, an imprint of Penguin, London) is a narrative of hope in despair. The author, a nature writer and Professor of Literature and the Environmental Humanities has written numerous bestselling books.  Some of them are Underland, Landmarks, The Old Ways, The Wild Places and Mountains of the Mind which have been translated into many languages and won numerous prizes around the world. His writings have been widely adopted for different modes of creative expressions namely music, theatre, film, radio, and dance. Macfarlane’s this book, a detailed account his journey of three rivers across three different continents (South America, North America and Asia) is equally personal and political.  This book on rivers is equally about mountains, seas, birds and all other living beings.