Is A River Alive?

Is A River Alive? is an exhilarating exploration of an ancient, urgent idea: that rivers are not mere matter for human use, but living beings who should be recognised as such in imagination and law.

This book 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 were threatened with destruction from gold-mining. The second is to the wounded rivers 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 Shipu or Magpie River - 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 Macfarlane's most personal and most political book to date. Powered by dazzling prose and lit throughout by other minds and voices, it will open hearts, spark debates and challenge perspectives. At the centre of this vital, beautiful book is the recognition that our fate flows with that of rivers - and always has.