I love a good nature non-fiction read and when I saw Is a River Alive? was coming out from highly regarded nonfiction author Robert Macfarlane, I eagerly scooped it up.

With many nature nonfiction titles, Macfarlane is also a prize winner. Underland, about the world underground, won the 2019 Wainwright Prize in the UK and then two years ago, Macfarlane won the inaugural Weston International Prize from the Writers’ Trust here in Canada which recognizes authors from around the world who have a significant body of nonfiction work.

Is a River Alive? is a story—well, three stories, really—about rivers and the people who are fighting to protect them. While conservationists have long fought for natural areas to be protected, current efforts have taken a new direction: towards having rivers (and other natural spaces) recognized as living beings in law. This may sound odd at first until you remember that corporations are considering “persons” under the law. If Google is a “person”, then why not the St. Lawrence?

In the book, Macfarlane provides case studies of three major watersheds and portraits of the people trying to save them. Over the course of a year, he takes three trips to explore the Los Cedros in Ecuador, the various rivers in Chennai, India, and the Mutehekau (aka, Magpie) in Québec, Canada. Interspersed between these trips are Macfarlane’s visits to the nameless spring by his home, often with his son alongside.

While detailing the injuries from mining, damming, industrial pollution, Macfarlane also helps us see the beauty of these places and the tenacity and passion of the people working to save or rehabilitate them. We meet mycologists, biologists, educators, lawyers, and more. Most importantly, we learn how Indigenous people are frequently at the forefront of this movement, often inspired by the success of Māori in 2017 to have the Whanganui River in Aotearoa New Zealand declared a legal person with fundamental rights. I wish that Macfarlane had been able to visit the Whanganui and had dedicated a full chapter to its story as it is so foundational to the concepts of the book and the work of others.

I was mesmerized by how Macfarlane spools out time, paints vivid images, constructs beautiful sentences. I loved the way he interwove his personal experiences with the historical, legal, and scientific information. I was most taken with his writing about the kayak trip he took down the Mutehekau in Québec. It brought back vivid memories of times spent canoeing both for work and for pleasure.

Macfarlane came and spoke the Toronto Library in Toronto as this book was being released in May but unfortunately I wasn’t able to go. I’m hoping the recording will show up on their YouTube channel (it hasn’t yet). There’s also an interesting CBC article about the song that Macfarlane and others wrote while in Los Cedros and their efforts to have the cloud forest recognized as a co-author.

If you’ve enjoyed books like The Hidden Life of Trees or Finding the Mother Tree, I highly recommend Is a River Alive?

This is nonfiction at its most poetic. It’s storytelling with reverence for the natural world, told through the powerful lens of rivers. It is as much about human connection and humility as it is about environmental wonder. Each chapter introduces us to people whose lives are shaped by rivers, and through Robert’s eyes, I fell in love with them, their stories, and the waters they fight for. I didn’t expect to be as moved as I was, crying through the Acknowledgements and Aftermath. This is the kind of book that shifts how you see the world. It weaves in Indigenous perspectives, environmental science, and philosophical inquiries about life itself, especially in his exploration of the Rights of Nature, a concept made so clear and urgent. He makes a compelling case that rivers are not just vital to life, but are life, challenging the narrow boundaries we place around what is considered alive. The book is beautifully sourced, complete with a glossary, index, and comprehensive references that had me checking out new books to read and organizations to explore. I am particularly reflective on the impact of hydroelectricity, including Hydro Quebec’s role here, and the costs to river ecosystems we so easily overlook from the city. This is essential reading for anyone open to having their perspective on the natural world expanded. I’m inspired, heartbroken, and motivated to do more. It’s a gorgeous, transformative book I can’t recommend highly enough.

Thanks to NetGalley and Random House Canada for access to this book.

Absolutely gorgeous writing coupled with insight into people around the world doing intriguing research and advocacy that supports the premise of rivers being things full of life and energy, and that are vital to the health not just of the beings that live in and along them, but for humans, too.

There are pop culture references (extra points to the author for referencing Chirrut Imwe) throughout. (I also could not help thinking repeatedly of the goddesses of rivers, such as Ganga, or, the rivers in Ben Aaronovitch's fantastic Rivers of London series). Though the author's tone is light and accessible, it's also a serious and contemplative piece of writing, full of joy and wonder.

Author Robert MacFarlane provides us with insight into work happening around the world that shows how dynamic and vibrant rivers are, as well as the natural life within them. He features various compelling and quirky individuals working to save rivers and change minds. We learn of the amazing things people are doing to protect and revitalize rivers, through legal means, education, clean up activities and activism.

It's also a tough work to get through, and I had to take several breaks, as it was difficult to read about the ways so many waterways have been have been damaged through industrialization and a lack of concern for anything but profit. That said, I was left with tremendous hope for rivers to regain their lively and healthy ways on their way to oceans.

And hope is a big part of this thoughtful book. It's lovely, poetic, deeply affecting, and beautifully written.

Thank you to Netgalley and to Penguin Random House Canada (Adult) for this ARC in exchange for my review.

Is A River Alive? is a unique perspective on nature and its elements. The author discusses an interesting concept: does nature, and do rivers, more specifically, have rights the same way that humans do? Do rivers have the right to flow? To be free of pollution? To reach the sea? In my opinion, yes, they do. Water and rivers sustain life and are a basic living need of all plant and animal species.

The author takes us on a global journey. First, to the cloud forests of Ecuador where rivers are threatened by mining industries. Second, to rivers in India that are clogged by waste. Third, to rivers in Quebec, Canada, where ecosystems and communities are threatened by dam building.

This book is just as much a call to action to save rivers worldwide, but also an ode to Mother Nature and its beautiful rivers.

Read if you like...
🌿 Ecology
☔️ Environmental sciences
🌎 Climate activism

🙏Thank you Penguin Random House Canada and NetGalley for a gifted advanced electronic copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This wonderful work of non-fiction begs the question, Is a River Alive? Robert MacFarland travels to three huge rivers that were/are the life force of their area, one in Ecuador, India, and the last only a few hundred kms from my own home on the East Coast of Canada.

He explores the vast systems of life, and in some cases lack thereof, around these major rivers, and how people have come together in attempts to protect them from further exploitation at the hands of big corporations and government policies.

He experiences miraculous species of flora, fauna, fungi, and even insects, while also mourning the destruction and loss of many others as we allow our rivers, the life blood of our planet to become heavily contaminated, poising anything that dare enter them.

It is simultaneously awe inspiring and heartbreaking.

"Rivers run through people as surely as they run through places."

"It is normalized that a corporation, in the eyes of the law, is an entity with legal standing and a suite of rights, including the right to sue — but that a river who has flowed for thousands of years has no rights at all."

When speaking of camps created in vast wildness to house, feed, and entertain hundreds of workers while major dams are built he points out that not only are we destroy vasts swaths of land only to abandon them once the work is finished, but "though employment levels rise significantly in the region during the construction or the Romaine Project, so did crime, divorce, social inequality, homelessness, and sexual transmitted infection rates."

As we exploit our resources we also exploit the people who live on and around them. This book really made me think differently about what 'progress' means. Is the destruction of the natural world around us really progress, or do we just call it that to make it easier to turn a blind eye to the vast, unending exploitation as long as it doesn't get too close to our own homes?

With beautiful passages, we are guided through three experiences by Robert MacFarlane. First we explore a cloud forest of Ecuador, following a fungi expert as she discovers and maps out different fungal species. Next we go to the lagoons of India, where spiritual questions arise. We finish with a kayak trip through the Canadian rivers where it all comes together. Each journey is marked with unease as potential developments threaten the existence of the natural world.

I enjoyed the experience and how the writing put you in each location. With quirky characters, MacFarlane recreates his journey with astute observations.

My only complaint is how it felt like it was the same message inserted over and over again - rivers are alive and we need to protect them. I agree with this statement but felt it being said in basically the same format repeatedly made me a little bored with the material, skimming until I could become re-immersed in the experiences.

Still a worthwhile read if you enjoy nature and the interconnectedness of the world.

Thank you for the advance copy to the publisher and NetGalley.

I did both the audio and ebook as I love to hear when the author reads their work, passionately.

No spoilers.

Robert’s engaging journey through Ecuador, India and Canada brought me right there with him. His thorough descriptive trek through each location taught me how: conservation healed man-made damage, to the destructive greed of $$$ and impacts to no only human life but end-to-end of the nature cycle and so much more.

The author and his collaborators are all on the same mission in hopes to gather not only more followers though leaders that truly believe that nature, air, forests, rivers, lakes, permafrost etc have just rights as any corporation or human.

Will now change my language around how I refer to Mother Earth elements just as I would my friend, family as they are just as alive.

Thank you and keep spreading the love and word. Looking forward to reading much more in the future from these leaders!

✨ARC Review✨

Is A River Alive? - by Robert Macfarlane

Releases: May 20, 2025 (yes it is already out)

So this is a very philosophical nonfiction about rivers and how interconnected we are to rivers along with the nature surrounding rivers. It talks about topics like the government and companies, along with people in general, trying to always have control over nature, including the use of rivers, displacing the natural environment. It discusses natural energy.

This is one of those books where it really makes your eyes pop open and reflect on how rivers transform life. That there is such a thing as a river having life and death, like everything else in nature.

Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Random House for providing me with this copy.

I find it hard to review non-fiction, but this one has a sort of a plot to it, so I’ll say it’s an immersive narrative following one man’s journey to determine if rivers are deserving of a “personhood” status, what that means, and why it’s important to our future. It also takes place in Canada for some of it, which was a draw for me as well, being Canadian.

This is, of course, a book about environmentalism, but it’s also a bit of a travel memoir and a dive into natural history. The way it’s approached - short chapters of his home in the UK interspersed throughout, then the three sections in Ecuador, India, and Canada, show how rivers all over the world are integral to our survival as a species as they fuel so many other systems (as well as provide us with clean water to drink)!

If you’re really into environmentalism, as I am, this is a great book because it’s clear Macfarlane has an agenda (to show that river systems should be legally protected), but he also has beautiful passages describing the beauty of our natural world.

Along with these aspects, he also has colorful characters (or at least beefs up the interesting natures of the people he meets/travels with), so the story isn’t just a bunch of facts and arguments, but has a real structure to it. The first feel almost like a fantastical quest, the second a city exploration, and the third reminded me of Lost in the Barrens, as it’s essentially a kayak adventure through some of the most challenging and remote terrain in my general area of Canada. The kayak adventure was the most compelling for me, mainly because I live here. I haven’t been that far north in Quebec, but I’ve been north enough to understand what they are talking about.

The prose is just lovely, with phrases like: “A half-foot-long dragonfly slips briefly out of the Jurassic era, then vanishes again” and “Rain-fed, the spring’s stream surges seaward: gravity at work, or something like longing” and “Mist hangs in scarves. The forest froths with sound." It really is evocative and gives a sense of mystery and ethereal beauty to our home.

I’m not even going to get into the argument. Yes, I think rivers and all nature need to be protected. How this is even a question nowadays is beyond me, but apparently those in government and who own most of the world's capital seem oblivious to it (or just don't care).

Anyway, great book.

This was an absolutely fascinating book. It took me a while to read because the writing style is quite dense and poetic and makes extensive use of a very interesting vocabulary. However the stories told within it are fascinating and important. I felt like I was travelling along with the author on his journey - especially the part where he paddles through northern Canada because that’s familiar territory for me, but also in the unfamiliar lands of the other parts of the book. It has certainly changed the way I feel about hydro power - which is presented in Canada as a clean and natural energy source. I’ve always felt a kinship with water - the lakes and oceans of my home province of Nova Scotia - but this book has reinforced that and made me think of them as living rather than just as energy-having. An important and beautiful read.

Die Maori fragen, was dein Wasser ist anstatt zu fragen, woher du kommst. Wir alle haben Wasserwege in uns, auch wenn in ihnen kein Wasser, sondern Blut fließt. Aber sind Flüsse Lebewesen mit eigenem Bewusstsein und Rechten, oder sind sie nur Wege, auf denen Menschen und Waren transportiert werden und die immer mehr bedroht werden?

Um diese Frage zu beantworten, nimmt Robert Macfarlane seine LeserInnen auf eine Reise mit in den Dschungel von Ecuador, wo der Fluss eine fast schon untergeordnete Rolle spielt bei der Suche nach neuen Spezies. Der Kontrast zum nächsten Fluss, den er besucht, könnte nicht größer sein. Wo in Ecuador der Fluss stellenweise in kleines Rinnsal war, das sich durch eine fast unberührte Landschaft bewegte, ist sein indischer Bruder breit, schmutzig und alles andere als einsam. Der dritte Fluss ist wieder ein Kontrast zu den beiden ersten. Der Fluss im kanadischen Quebec hat die starke Stimme von Rita Mestokosho, die für ihn spricht.

Drei Flüsse, drei völlig unterschiedliche Landschaften, aber eine Botschaft: wir können nicht mehr so weitermachen mit den Ressourcen, die wir bekommen haben und immer noch für selbstverständlich halten. Aber wer seine Stimme erhebt, der bringt sich nicht selten in Gefahr, weil er nicht selten gegen den übermächtigen Gegner Mammon angehen muss.

Robert Macfarlane erzählt von den Erlebnisse auf seinen Reisen auch hier ohne den berühmten erhobenen Zeigefinger. Er überlässt es seinen LeserInnen, eigene Schlüsse zu ziehen. Mich hat er auch dieses Mal wieder mit seiner Begeisterung für das, was er erlebt hat, mitgenommen. Er hat sein Auge auch auf die kleinen Dinge, wie das Flüsschen, das nur wenige hundert Meter von seinem Zuhause fließt und das die Geschichten seiner drei großen Brüder miteinander verbindet.

Is A River Alive? happens to be my first nonfiction book of this year and it did not disappoint. Such a thought provoking title and concept for the way that rivers, water and in turn the environment is viewed. The book sweeps through England, Ecuador, India and Canada along the rushing waters of the featured water sources with a unique assortment of protectors and advocates. A good tale for those interested in a special view of how we as humans see, treat, use and are in relation with water.
“To change a landscape for the better,” he says, “you must first have the ability to dream - to dream a good dream.”
Thanks to NetGalley, Penguin Random House Canada and Robert Macfarlane for the digital ARC of Is A River Alive?

Is a river alive? My answer: yes, no doubt.

In answering the question, Macfarlane visits three rivers, one in each of Ecuador, India and Canada.

I was fully immersed in each of Macfarlane's visits as he recounts each river's past and present. I traipsed through the cloud forest of Ecuador. Although polluted, I walked along the creeks and lagoons of India, with their bird populations that insisted the waters were alive. I paddled the white waters of a Quebec river and survived the black flies - barely.

Joining each journey were Macfarlane's friends and colleagues who were as entrenched in the writing as the rivers themselves.

This was my first book of Macfarlane's but it won't be my last.

Told with beautiful and vivid descriptive imagery, that intertwines important ecological historical events with nature, spirituality, and gorgeous photography. This book is a stark and humbling reminder of the importance of taking care of our planet, treating her with love, restorative agriculture, and protecting her from further harm. From the rainforests in South America, to my birthplace in England, to India and all its gems, to the precious forests of my home country Canada, the story is interwoven with exquisite intricacy that connects all living beings with the importance of honouring nature around us. Robert is a gifted and magical storyteller, and it was an absolute pleasure and honour to be gifted a free ARC of this book, and to read it. Thank you so much NetGalley for the free ARC.

**Trigger warnings** Mentions the heartbreaking shooting murder of a pregnant water defender, Alba Bermeo Puin. Also mentions tear gassing of small children, and includes a photo of a dead turtle. All of these events are spoken about in a respectful and compassionate way as a way to bring about knowledge of these atrocities so further ones like this can be prevented. Also discusses a man in extreme poverty defecating in public.

Macfarlane is one of Britain’s most celebrated nature writers, The book focuses on Macfarlane's journeys to three locations: a cloud forest in Ecuador; a poisoned river in Chennai, India; and a Canadian river NE of Montreal, Quebec. He argues that rivers should be thought of as living beings who should not be killed.

Is a River Alive? by Robert Macfarlane is a luminous exploration of the natural world, inviting readers to see rivers as living beings deserving of respect both in our imagination and under the law. Known for his masterful prose, Macfarlane takes us on three remarkable journeys to the cloud-forests of Ecuador, the troubled waterways of India, and the wild rivers of Canada, weaving in the story of a fragile chalk stream near his home.

The book blends travel writing, natural history, and philosophy, challenging us to rethink our relationship with nature. Macfarlane’s vivid descriptions and thoughtful insights open up a new way of seeing the world that is both urgent and hopeful. This is a deeply important book that feels especially timely in an age of environmental crisis.

Personally, I found it both beautifully written and profoundly moving. It reminded me that how we value and protect nature could shape our future—and that every river has a story worth hearing.

Read more at The Secret Book Review.

Is A River Alive by Robert Macfarlane is an expert craft of storytelling and research to answer the question about the liveliness of a river and if we as humans should consider a river to be alive.

I loved how the author brought you into the book with stories in the prologue and introduction and I also loved his emphasis on indigenous cultures and how he included their views in his research to find the answer to his question.

This book has a very interesting premise and the writing is absolutely beautiful, it however was just not for me. Based on the synopsis and the work I’ve been doing with non-fiction in school recently, I thought I could learn to love this book as well as expand my horizons. Unfortunately it did do the opposite and I found myself feeling forced to read it instead of finding any joy in the work.

None of this is the author’s fault, I just think I picked it up at a horrible time fresh out of school and assigned readings and all. I do think there is a wide market for it and I do think plenty of people will enjoy it, I just sadly wasn’t one of them although I appreciated the writing and the work that went into it.

I hope I can one day come back to this book with fresh eyes and find it a little more suited to my taste but for now, it’s not a bad book, it’s just not for me.

I found the book to be very well witten and
lyrical. The premise is whether a river is alive
and should a river be considered to be alive. The
eloquent prose brings the river to life in such a
way that it resembles a living, breathing being
with various creatures that satellite the river that
are a vital part of a river's health and wellbeing.
It shows two paths we can take: destroy it and
destroy ourselves or respect it as a living being
who has rights as any living being should, which
helps us thrive too. At first glance, it might seem
ludicrous to think of a river as alive, but maybe
we should. A river isn't just a river. It's a complex
system (alive) where the river and the life around
it are intertwined in such a way that if one falls,
they (we) all fall. The idea is so revolutionary and
the writing is so lush that you need to take a step
back while reading to fully absorb. This is not a
book to be speedily read but one to read slowly,
take notes, and think about whether a river is
alive. The short answer is yes. The longer answer
is to read the book and truly understand why the
answer is yes.

Beautifully written. Easy to understand. Writing your argument into stories will always work. I liked it so much that I've been convinced to try reading more nonfiction books. The way the author describes his experiences almost made me believe this wasn't a nonfiction. Weaving historical events into this was obviously a big part, but it struck home for me as I love to read about history. Mentions of the Saint Lawrence River were also everything to me, as a Canadian!! This is not the in depth review I was hoping to write, but I hope Robert hears about how much I enjoyed his book.

I felt very lucky to get an ARC of this book! Explores the idea that rivers are living beings. It blends research and the authors own reporting with a very poetic style and a sense of humour that made this an easy read.

The pacing was a bit off at times, but overall this was a really impactful read that left me confident in agreeing with the authors proposal that rivers have sentience.