¿Están vivos los ríos?

At the heart of this book beats a unique and transformative idea: rivers are not mere matter at the service of humankind, but living beings that deserve to be recognized as such, in our imagination and also before the law. Guided by activists, artists, and legislators from the Rights of Nature movement, Robert Macfarlane leads us on a profound global journey through places where this forgotten truth is re-emerging. The narrative flows like water along three major journeys: from the cloud forest of Los Cedros in northern Ecuador, where a river flows through an ecosystem threatened by gold mining; through the invisible rivers that run beneath the city of Madras in southern India; to northeastern Quebec, where the untamed Magpie River resists the onslaught of hydroelectric projects. Interwoven with these journeys is the intimate story of a small stream that flows near the home of the author and his family, whose lives have unfolded, almost unknowingly, to the rhythm of its waters. Are Rivers Alive? is Macfarlane's most personal and political book: a luminous work that invites us to reimagine not only rivers, but life itself, and to recognize that our destiny has always flowed alongside theirs.