Is a River Alive? | Robert Macfarlane

Across the world, rivers are dying from pollution, drought and damming. Since time immemorial, rivers have been made to serve human needs: for transport, for energy, as a source of food, as open sewers. Yet worldwide there is also a movement that seeks to recognize the life and rights of rivers and other nature, and to enshrine them in law to prevent further destruction.

Nature writer Robert Macfarlane is deeply convinced of these Rights of Nature. In Leeft een rivier? he takes his readers on a journey along three great river basins, in Ecuador, India and Canada. From cloud forests to lagoons, and from creeks to swirling masses of water. All three rivers are under threat, and for all three a battle is being fought.

Leeft een rivier? is Macfarlane's most personal and political book to date. It brims with fascinating ideas, unforgettable characters and stories, and with the razor-sharp nature observations that are his trademark. He weaves cultural and natural history, reportage, travel and nature writing together with poetic prose