The River Has Roots

De: Amal El-Mohtar

Narrado por: Gem Carmella

The River Has Roots is the hugely anticipated solo debut of the New York Times bestselling and Hugo Award winning author Amal El-Mohtar. Follow the river Liss to the small town of Thistleford, on the edge of Faerie, and meet two sisters who cannot be separated, even in death.

This program features music performed by the author and her sister, Dounya El-Mohtar with Amal and Dounya on harp, flute, and vocals; and songs sung by the narrator, Gem Carmella. It also includes the short story "John Hollowback and the Witch," from the author's upcoming collection.

"Half delicious murder ballad, half beguiling love story."—Holly Black • "An absolute must-read."—T. Kingfisher • "Every sentence sings!"—Sarah Beth Durst • "Utterly enchanting."—Fonda Lee • "A story that outlasts itself."—Alix E. Harrow • "Truly exquisite."—Zoraida Córdova • "A beautiful, musical, and loving story."—Emma Törzs

“Oh what is stronger than a death? Two sisters singing with one breath.”

In the small town of Thistleford, on the edge of Faerie, dwells the mysterious Hawthorn family.

There, they tend and harvest the enchanted willows and honour an ancient compact to sing to them in thanks for their magic. None more devotedly than the family’s latest daughters, Esther and Ysabel, who cherish each other as much as they cherish the ancient trees.

But when Esther rejects a forceful suitor in favor of a lover from the land of Faerie, not only the sisters’ bond but also their lives will be at risk…

“Musical effects combine with Carmella’s singing at key moments…A stunning performance.”—AudioFile (Earphones Award Winner)

A Macmillan Audio production from Tor.com.

©2025 Amal El-Mohtar (P)2025 Macmillan Audio

Reseñas de la Crítica

"Half delicious murder ballad, half beguiling love story, Amal El-Mohtar transports us to Faerieland so seamlessly it seems as though she just stepped out of it."—Holly Black, #1 New York Times bestselling author

"El-Mohtar’s solo debut (after cowriting This Is How You Lose the Time War with Max Gladstone) is a heart-wrenching fairy tale about the bonds of love and family. It’s a murder ballad in book form that will linger long after the final page is turned."—Library Journal, starred review

"El-Mohtar’s ethereal prose paints a clear picture of the unbreakable bond between her worthy heroines."—Publisher's Weekly

Fantastic production!

Great narration, music, background noises. Overall one of the best audiobooks ever, congrats to the narrator!

A balm for the soul

A truly lovely novella, and the audio performance makes it markedly better. I’m grateful to have listened to this.

Poetic and Lyrical Fairy Tale

I loved “The River Has Roots” by Amal El-Mohtar.

It’s a very short novella (133 pages in print or 3 hours and 53 minutes in audio) and is written by the author of one of my favorite books, “This is How You Lose the Time War” (Amal El-Mohtar co-wrote it with Max Gladstone). Her new book has the same ethereal writing style as Time War.

It’s a fairy tale about two sisters who care for and harvest enchanted willow trees and they thank the trees for their magic by singing to them. One of the sisters is a lesbian who falls for a non binary fae, but the story is centered more about the connections between sisters.

“The River Has Roots” is a poetic and lyrical fairy tale wrapped in folk songs. What makes the audio version special though is that it’s a book whose themes are sisterly bonds and the audiobook has background music which is performed by the author and her sister. The narrator, Gem Carmella also sings the songs.

“The River Has Roots” is a beautifully written fairy tale and I do recommend listening to the audio version. The narration is excellent.

Rich and lush and ode to language and love

An astonishingly beautiful piece of work. The audiobook in particular is spectacular because of the inclusion of singing. This is murder ballad. It’s also a fairy tale, and a riddle song. It contains multitudes. The language pulls you in with its intimacy. It is the story of two sisters and their unshakable love and bond. There is murder, there is also justice, and in the end a happiness of sorts. This is a book that should be remembered forever. Do stick around to short story at the end, it is poignant and for me at least painful. Amal El-Mohtar has a gift with words and I can’t wait to see what she writes next. Do not hesitate to buy this. As final praise I cannot help but love a story that has a pun as an essential part of its story.

Narrative poetry

There's something about Amal El-Mohtar's writing that sounds just like magic is supposed to be. and somehow the audiobook managed to elevate that with the sound production and music.
This story marked me in the best way possible.

Really excellent!

Reminded me of some of Neil Gaiman's short stories. Narrator was absolutely fantastic and I loved listening to another delightful and imaginative story from El-Mohtar!

Great performance, beautiful fairytale

The narration was absolutely beautiful, and the narrator’s singing was the cherry on top.

These are lovely modern fairytales!

Sound Production

I was so excited when I recognized Gem Carmella's voice from Heaven's Vault, one of my favorite games. The trouble is, Inkle understands that when you take the time to write dialogue and hire a voice actor to read it you want the audience to be able to hear what the voice actor is saying, the people who produced this audio book shared no such understanding. Was there a good story? I don't know, I couldn't hear Carmella over the sound effects. I wish Macmillan understood that people buy audio books for narrative not for open library sound effects. If I wanted white noise I would put on a white noise playlist; I really wanted to hear the latest from Amal El-Mohtar! This sort of sound production prevents anyone with any kind of auditory trouble from getting to enjoy the book they paid for. My advice is to buy this book in print if you can read print. And if you're like me and struggle with print (perhaps due to an inner ear disorder) I'm sorry. It would be cool if publishers cared about folks like us but they really don't.