Is a River Alive?

De: Robert Macfarlane

Narrado por: Robert Macfarlane

From the bestselling author of Underland and "the great nature writer . . . of this generation" (Wall Street Journal), a revelatory book that transforms how we imagine rivers—and life itself.

Hailed in the New York Times as "a naturalist who can unfurl a sentence with the breathless ease of a master angler," Robert Macfarlane brings his glittering style to a profound work of travel writing, reportage, and natural history. Is a River Alive? is a joyful, mind-expanding exploration of an ancient, urgent idea: that rivers are living beings who should be recognized as such in imagination and law.

Macfarlane takes listeners on three unforgettable journeys teeming with extraordinary people, stories, and places: to the miraculous cloud-forests and mountain streams of Ecuador, to the wounded creeks and lagoons of India, and to the spectacular wild rivers of Canada―imperiled respectively by mining, pollution, and dams. Braiding these journeys is the life story of the fragile chalk stream a mile from Macfarlane's house, a stream who flows through his own years and days. Powered by dazzling prose and lit throughout by other minds and voices, Is a River Alive? will open hearts, challenge perspectives, and remind us that our fate flows with that of rivers―and always has.

©2025 Robert Macfarlane (P)2025 Penguin Audio

Wonderous in scope and imagination!

Macfarlane’s writing is absolutely superb. He weaves words and emotions into a lovely tapestry and his ability to grab and keep your attention is what separates this book from most others. I couldn’t recommend it more!

Must listen!!!

Profoundly moving call to action to protect rivers and in turn, our Earth, our home. Eloquent writing often moved me to tears and merited a second listen.

Beautiful

Loved the language and the narration. The search for an answer was a moving and immersive experience.

One of the best Humanists

Your narration moved me. Your words rooted me. The balance of knowledge and whimsy is unmatched.

Powerful Voice for Nature

A thoroughly engaging poetic voice for the rights of nature in a rapidly changing world. The author's personal stories and interactions with nature are thoroughly engaging and riveting in their vivid clarity and imagery. A new and powerful voice that is needed (among many others) trying to understand the role of humans in and with the natural world.

This book helps a reader understand the relationship between humans and the non-human world we inhabit.

Love of language / Love of nature / Moral clarity

Inspirational. A master of words at the peak of his powers. I couldn’t recommend more highly.

Revelatory

Methodical foray into water as an entity of which we are composed and sacred as ourselves.

Great Author Narration

The authors narration really adds depth to the story. This is much more than just a book about rivers, getting into metaphysical questions of what life is.

One of the few books I will return

This is the first book I’ve read from this author and there is something profoundly unreadable about it. The more I read the more I disliked it and felt a growing resentment and distaste for the author, a somewhat rare reaction for me. I agree with the premise, to me intuitively rivers are alive and I’m definitely open to the legal argument that they deserve rights like (and more than) corporations, that this author felt like he was convincing me to feel otherwise. I mean honestly it was one a few books out of hundreds on my audible that was genuinely unreadable to me. My wife didn’t seem so bothered, so it’s probably not so bad as it came off to me, but it was my suggestion and I vetoed it early on. Pretentious hangs over every word like a cloud, or I’d say more like a lead weight, and I like and love other books that people call pretentious. This requires an extremely high tolerance, beyond what I could muster.

Total waste

Author presents no facts just flowery opinions. Chapter after chapter of hearing how the river is telling him he’s okay.