Reviews round-up
Is a River Alive?
by Robert Macfarlane
4 of 6 critics positive
7 reviews: 1 rave, 3 positives, 2 mixed; 1 not stating a verdict in public
What the critics said
“a powerful confluence of environmentalism and sublime prose”
Are rivers living things? Yes, says Robert Macfarlane
“A beautiful overture for our dying rivers”
Is a River Alive? by Robert Mcfarlane: A beautiful overture for our dying rivers
“prose that flows like the water he so admires”
'Is a River Alive?' review: Robert Macfarlane reconsiders waterways
“An impassioned plea to save our rivers combines poetry and adventure”
Is a River Alive? by Robert Macfarlane review – streams of consciousness
“is wrong to cast rivers as life forms in new book”
Is a River Alive? review: Robert Macfarlane is wrong to cast rivers as life forms in new book
“gorgeously written but also windy and sentimental”
Britain’s Premier Nature Writer Cries Us a River (Published 2025)
“a plea to feel the pulse of our rivers”
Robert Macfarlane’s new book is a plea to feel the pulse of our rivers
Verdicts are read from each outlet's own headline and summary; quotes are their words, credited and linked. Where a paywalled summary does not give the critic's view, we say so rather than guess. How it works.
