Vanessa Taylor’s “Seven Rivers” tells the story of the Nile, Danube, Niger, Mississippi, Ganges, Yangtze and the Thames.
At its heart are the empire-builders of the Chinese dynasties, Romans and Hindus and their river gods, the Habsburgs and Ottomans, Mughal emperors, the people of the Niger from Mali’s golden age to today, struggles of life and death on the Mississippi, and the dethroning of the British on the rivers of their unruly imperial subjects.
