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 reader 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.
Described by the Guardian as ‘one of the biggest publishing events (if not the biggest) of 2025 – a new book by Robert Macfarlane’.
Robert Macfarlane is internationally renowned for his writing on nature, people and place. His bestselling books include Underland, Landmarks, The Old Ways, The Wild Places and Mountains of the Mind, as well as a book-length prose-poem, Ness. His work has been translated into more than thirty languages, won prizes around the world, and been widely adapted for film, music, theatre, radio and dance. He has also written operas, plays, and films including River and Mountain, both narrated by Willem Dafoe. He has collaborated closely with artists including Olafur Eliasson and Stanley Donwood, and with the artist Jackie Morris he co-created the internationally bestselling books of nature-poetry and art, The Lost Words and The Lost Spells. As a lyricist and performer, he has written albums and songs with musicians including Cosmo Sheldrake, Karine Polwart and Johnny Flynn, with whom he has released two albums, Lost In The Cedar Wood (2021) and The Moon Also Rises (2023). In 2017, the American Academy of Arts and Letters awarded him the E.M. Forster Prize for Literature, and in 2022 in Toronto he was the inaugural winner of the Weston International Award for a body of work in the field of non-fiction. He is a Fellow of Emmanuel College, Cambridge, and is currently completing his third book with Jackie Morris: The Lost Birds.
Martha Kearney is a broadcast journalist and presenter.
Before joining BBC Radio 4’s Today programme as one of its regular presenters until after the General Election in 2024, Martha hosted The World At One on the station for eleven years. She has also presented a number of television documentaries on BBC 2 and BBC 4 on history, literature, nature and art. Martha has presented The Secret World of Lewis Carroll, Great Irish Journeys with Martha Kearney (BBC 4) and Jane Austen: The Unseen Portrait? (BBC 2). In the Books That Made Britain series she presented a special on East Anglia: The Scene of the Crime (BBC4). She presented The Great Butterfly Adventure: Africa to Britain with the Painted Lady (BBC4), and being a keen apiarist, she’s hosted The Wonder of Bees, Who Killed The Honey Bee? (BBC 4), and Hive Alive (BBC 2). Martha began her journalistic career in radio, and worked as Lobby Correspondent for LBC/IRN, before joining Channel 4’s Week in Politics team. She’s been political editor of Newsnight and presented Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour for nearly a decade. Martha has won the Sony Radio Bronze Award and been nominated for a BAFTA for her coverage of Northern Ireland peace process.
