Feb 7, 2025 5 min read 2025 tour

Letter of News: THE RIVER HAS ROOTS Finished Copies, Pre-orders, and New Tour Stops

Dear Friends,

First, welcome new readers! Since last I wrote, I turned 40, found this year's bird (of which more anon), and saw the passing of three New Years. I hope to find the time to write about any of those things before going on tour for The River Has Roots.

The book comes out on March 4, which kicks off a five-city tour. On February 4 I found myself saying, out loud, "wow there are only 28 days between me and tour." On February 5, as if to underscore that point, a large box arrived at my door, and inside it were finished books.

They're beautiful. They're so beautiful that I can feel them activating my problematic inclinations towards perfectionism: I want to take photos of them from the best angles, find the ideal moment to share them, tell you about them with language poised and precise, really make you feel exactly as I do when I hold them.

But who has the time! This will have to do!

My left hand holding up the finished hardcover of THE RIVER HAS ROOTS. On a pale cover, a squiggly graphic line moving from the top left corner of the book down to the bottom right corner is a portal into a soft, romantic landscape of rivers and hills; bursting out between the squiggle’s curves are bright bold dahlias in warm hues. At the top of the image are the words “The River” and at the bottom are the words “Has Roots”; below those are “New York Times Bestselling author Amal El-Mohtar.”

She's a hardcover! She's got a spot gloss! (That means the river and title are shiny and a little embossed.) She's got interior illustrations by Kathleen Neeley and endpapers of a rich gorgeous green that I think may have been sampled from my author photo because I can't fathom how else they look so good together!

A woodcut-style illustration of a chicken pecking grass in front of an old-fashioned mill, above which are the words MILWICH EGGS & LOAVES.

A woodcut style illustration showing a pair of willows flanking a river, their roots knobbling the surface of the water between them.

The back flap of the book, showing my author photo and bio, in which I'm wearing a red velvet red blazer over a dark blue floral dress and looking away from camera against a background of vibrant green leaves. The green of the end papers echoes the green of the leaves.

And then, when you slide the dust jacket off...

The naked book held up at a diagonal that shows the title and my name on the spine over Tordotcom's colophon as well as a flapping chicken centred on the front cover. The words and illustration are in a shiny silver.

The book held at a flatter angle to showcase the shine on the chicken.

A shiny chook! I'm so delighted!

But as excited as I am about the hardcover... I'm possibly even more excited about the audiobook. Why? Well –

A photo of playing my 36-string Lyon & Healy Troubadour IV lever harp, in a recording studio, surrounding by microphones and author audio equipment.

A photo of my sister, taken from the back, in the same recording studio, while she plays flute. She's wearing a floral-patterned shirt that echoes the cover of THE RIVER HAS ROOTS on the music stand next to her sheet music.

My sister and I recorded some music for it! I play the harp and she plays the flute; we sing songs together. I have no idea how much of what we did will make it into the final product, but I loved getting to do this with her. The core of this book is how magical it has always felt to sing with my sister, and the thought that it could actually audibly contain some of that feeling makes me deeply happy.

Also it felt pretty epic to carry my 36-string harp around in a blizzard.

Selfie in which I'm grinning while holding the padded canvas bag containing my harp, slightly taller than I am, while snow falls on us both.

All right, them's the delights: on to some news you can use.

Praise for The River Has Roots

It's an Indie Next pick for March! This monthly list is compiled by recommendations from independent booksellers, which frankly means the world to me.
Polygon and Reactor listed it among their anticipated releases
Esquire included it in their 20 most anticipated books of 2025
Locus Magazine published not one but two (!!) reviews in their January edition, both tremendously kind; Gary K. Wolfe called it "a graceful and resonant tale" and "an absolutely lovely take on classic murder ballads," and Liz Bourke called it "haunting and joyful."
Two starred reviews, from Library Journal ("a heart-wrenching fairy tale about the bonds of love and family...a murder ballad in book form that will linger long after the final page is turned.") and Booklist ("A marvelous story that pulls on old Grimm fairy tales of violence and truth telling, of what it means to be sisters in a story of fae and folklore, and of the kind of true love that exists between sisters.")

Pre-order The River Has Roots (with discounts!)

Today (February 7) is the last day of Barnes & Noble's Pre-order Sale, which gets rewards members (a thing that's free to obtain) 25% off almost any pre-orderable book. That said!
Bookshop.org is currently offering 15% off on pre-orders as well, if you add the LOVEBOOKSELLERS code at checkout. I always recommend supporting your favourite local independent bookstore if you can, especially as we live through tumultuous times where powerful people seek to ban and censor and curtail what appears on library shelves and syllabi. In the face of that, indies can be valuable hubs of community-building, education, and organizing, all of which I want to see supported and protected. If you're in Ottawa, I have a long-running relationship with Perfect Books, where I used to work, and keep them in signed stock as much as I can.
In the UK, if you pre-order from Waterstones, you can choose to receive a signed copy! I signed 2500 bookplates for them.
More pre-order options are available here. Why pre-order at all? Because it helps publishers determine print runs and helps booksellers gauge how many copies to stock at launch, all of which supports authors' careers so they can keep writing books. It's far from the only thing readers can do to support authors (ordering it into your local library is enormously helpful!) but it probably has the most direct and immediate impact.

Finally, a neat way to pre-order from an indie is... To come see me on tour!

Tour updates

Publicity graphic for an in-conversation event with Helen Rosner through Books Are Magic in NYC, Tuesday March 4 at 7PM at First Unitarian Church and on Youtube Live.

I'm so thrilled to be kicking off the tour in New York City in conversation with Helen Rosner, one of the smartest, funniest and kindest writers I feel privileged to know. (You might know her as the creator of Roberto, A Soup, which Slate recently named one of the 25 most important recipes of the past 100 years.)

I'm also really excited to be going to the Tucson Festival of Books for the first time! I'll be on the "Worlds Adjacent" panel on March 15 and the "Love in Spite of it All" panel on March 16, and am frankly a little star-struck by the list of festival attendees.

This is just the US tour; Canadian and UK events are still developing, but I hope to have more news about them soon! Until then, I hope you're supporting trans rights, opposing genocide, and finding ways to work against kleptocratic oligarchs and for the liberation of all people.

And maybe play some music while you're at it.

Selfie in which I'm seated at my harp, smiling at camera with my hair down in ringleting waves, wearing a grey tank top and jeans.