Just as well a failed rope crossing of the Senqu did not claim Cate’s life, as this adventurous account of a life in science can inspire us all to contribute to a more sustainable future. In beautiful prose, she recounts the accidental beginning of her career as a river scientist and her efforts at the forefront of this field. Cate recounts her quest to develop the knowledge needed to persuade the most hardheaded engineers and politicians to better care for the rivers that sustain our societies.

Jamie Pittock, Professor, Australian National University, Canberra, Australia

For anyone passionate about rivers, Cate Brown’s The River Is a Book is a compelling invitation to “read” rivers and discover how we can protect them for future generations. Drawing on a lifetime of working with rivers, Cate combines personal experience with powerful insights into their importance to society and the people whose lives depend on them. The future of our rivers may seem uncertain, but the solutions are there—and this inspiring book helps us learn how to read them.

Ian Cowx, Emeritus Professor, University of Hull, Hull International Fisheries Institute, UK

“A river’s life, like a human life, is not measured only in volume. It is measured in movement, in rhythm, in the richness of what it sustains along the way.”

“I carry so much hope from the story of the Poonch River and the return of the Golden Mahseer—proof that with the right science, the right people, and the willingness to stand on a rock above a river and rethink everything, something can be saved and even restored.”

“Small victories matter enormously, because they show what is possible.”

“The rivers are worth fighting for, and so are the millions of people and creatures whose lives flow with them.”

Pablo Cardinale, World Bank Group, Venezuela

At this unprecedented moment when each day brings news of tragic floods, droughts and fires, The River is a Book shares the remarkable story of the global community of water scientists who are developing a new holistic language and tools for protecting rivers from humans’ increasingly fatal ignorance of their needs.

A visionary, spirited, light-hearted leader within this community, Cate Brown, a freshwater ecologist with over thirty years’ experience healing and transforming global water policy recounts the lived experience of trying to keep alive some of the world’s most precious, endangered rivers and the vulnerable ecosystems and people who depend on them.

Part loving homage to her colleague and mentor, Dr. Jackie King, winner of the 2019 Stockholm Water Prize, and part memoir, The River is a Book uplifts, motivates and ultimately empowers anyone who loves a river to speak with it, animated by the knowledge that even the most complex science moves by way of respect for the unfathomable web of life humans are only a tiny part of.

Madeline Kiser and Oscar Beita, members, the Living Rivers Movement, Costa Rica

In The River is a Book, Brown reveals profound insights into the nature of life-sustaining waters, gained during many assignments across the globe over several decades.

In an easy, often self-deprecating style, she takes the reader on a series of modern-day adventures to and along a huge variety of rivers, describing how she and her many colleagues derived critical understanding during careful assessments before seeking to convince often sceptical decision-makers that such water bodies themselves constitute living systems – ‘not just lines on a map’ – that require uniquely determined environmental flows to sustain them.

Readers will share Brown’s moments of delight and joy at her many successes, but also understand the deep heartache, frustration and self-doubt when her recommendations and advice were ignored and river ecosystems collapsed or died.

If you’ve ever marvelled as you dip your hands into the cool waters of a river or stream, this is definitely a book for you.

John Yeld, Ecologist, South Africa