The Book of Rivers
The Book of RiversAn adventure through the ebb and flow of life along three European rivers
Nina BurtonFrom the celebrated author of Notes from a summer cottage and August Prize awarded The Guthenberg Galaxy Nova.
What can possibly connect glaciers, steam engines, eels and birds, diasporas and culture shifts, fairy tales and Gutenberg, dragons, salt and ghosts, carnivals and catastrophes, bridges, old Faust and an author’s own life story? Step into the milling essays of the BOOK OF RIVERS, where Burton sets out to follow the rivers Rhone, Rhine and Thames from the springs to the seas; from glaciers in the mountains to town and country.
The result is a winding journey through European history, art and nature, as well as into the author herself through personal stories and observations. Exquisitely written in lyrical prose, BOOK OF RIVERS is an immersive and enthralling collection of essays that move in the borderland of the natural sciences and the humanities, so typical of Burton’s writing.
Burton is the natural successor of naturalist writers such as Annie Dillard and Robert MacFarlane, and anyone who reads the BOOK OF RIVERS clearly understands why the book won Sweden’s finest non-fiction award “Stora Fackbokspriset” in 2012. Then the book was called an ‘odyssey of words, with vibrant insight and dizzying time spans, by a traveller who is able to bridge the distance between the humanities and natural sciences.’
‘Brilliant essay-art´
Svenska Dagbladet
‘The rivers become our common bloodstream, something that Nina Burton really manages to open her eyes to, and write about, again and again‘
Aftonbladet
