The River Has Roots by Amal El-Mohtar
I use up all my superlatives whenever I review anything by Amal El-Mohtar, whose prose is always exquisite and imaginative, flowing like syrup. In the case of 2025’s The River Has Roots, the hardcopy version of El-Mohtar’s lovely, original fairy tale is enhanced by woodcut-style illustrations. The story is short, novella-length, and draws on familiar elements, but the themes of the river and music form the story’s main currents, which drew me in immediately.
Esther and Ysabel Hawthorn are sisters, part of a family who guard and honor the magical willow trees that stand sentinel over the River Liss, which “brims with grammar”—for grammar, in this lovely world, is magic. The Liss flows out of Arcadia, the land of faerie, and two great willows, called The Professors, form a kind of border between Arcadia and the mundane world. Esther and Ysabel sing to the Professors every day.
The Hawthorns own much of the land along the river, and as well as honoring The Professors, they tend the mundane willows that grow there, selling willow bark for headaches, weaving baskets and so on. Esther has attracted the attention of Samuel Pollard, who wants to marry her and merge their family holdings. Esther has no interest in Pollard, because she has a lover from Arcadia, named Rin. Pollard will not accept her increasingly-less-gentle hints, and finally, he won’t take a straight-out “no” for an answer. The bucolic life of the Hawthorn sisters is shredded in a sudden act of betrayal. Suddenly, Esther and Ysabel are on opposite sides of a nearly insurmountable border. It will take magic and love to help the sisters reunite, but fortunately, Esther and Ysabel have plenty of both.
Amal El-Mohtar
As I said above, El-Mohtar’s words are beautiful, and her imagery is fantastical and lush. The solution of the problems the sisters face seemed familiar in the best way, like an echo of an old fairy tale (like this one). Music fills the tale and breathes even more life into the world and the characters.
While I liked the illustrations, I was so bewitched by the prose that gradually the drawings seemed like distractions. The depiction of the land of Arcadia and its inhabitants is distinctive; the twists are startling; justice is served, and through it all El-Mohtar’s writing flashes like gold and silver thread in a silk scarf. This is a quick, delicious story, exquisitely told. Did I already say “exquisite?” I don’t care, I’ll say it again. The River Has Roots is exquisite.
Agree! And a perfect ending, too.