Is a River Alive?

Is a River Alive? is a revelatory work of travel writing, reporting, and natural history that explores an ancient, urgent idea: that rivers are living beings who should be recognized as such in imagination and law.

Renowned nature writer Robert Macfarlane takes readers on three unforgettable journeys through the cloud-forests and mountain streams of Ecuador, the wounded creeks and lagoons of India, and the spectacular wild rivers of Canada. Throughout these expeditions, he encounters extraordinary activists, indigenous knowledge-keepers, and conservationists fighting to protect rivers from mining, pollution, and dams. Woven through these accounts is the story of a fragile chalk stream near Macfarlane’s home in Cambridgeshire.

Powered by Macfarlane’s dazzling prose and lit throughout by other voices, this book investigates the Rights of Nature movement—the emerging legal frameworks that recognize rivers and natural entities as living persons deserving protection. Is a River Alive? will open hearts, challenge perspectives, and remind us that our fate flows with that of rivers—and always has.