Is the River Alive? A Provocative Exploration by Robert MacFarlane

Is the river alive?
Robert Macfarlane (Penguin Books (UK) WW Norton (USA, May 20))

In the opening of this captivating, adventurous, and thought-provoking book, Robert Macfarlane tells his son about the title of his project. The boy exuberantly exclaims that the river is alive, prompting his father to joke that this will be a very brief book. However, Macfarlane’s explorations leave me feeling conflicted in the best way possible—a rarity in contemporary writing.

No…