Publication Date: October 17, 2023
A poignant and powerful first novel following the breakup of a Pakistani family in the face of climate disaster, and their indefatigable search for stability, love, and belonging.
In the rural town in Pakistan where Baadal grows up, children are named like talismans to sustain life and ward off unhappiness. At seventeen, Baadal has come to understand why his parents gave him that name, with hopes that their Big River will one day flow wide again, and their thirst will be quenched after years of drought. But in the final year of his schooling, abundance seems impossibly far away. As his parents’ marriage—full of rage, despair, and often violence—reaches a breaking point, the only comfort Baadal can afford is a budding kinship with Meena, a divorced older woman he meets on the banks of the drying river.
Meena has only just escaped her abusive husband, but her resistance to remarry soon gives way to the promise of stability and companionship that Baadal offers. Together, they leave the Town in search of greater fortunes in the City. But even strong-willed, independent Meena finds herself bowed by the strain of Badaal’s punishing work schedule, her struggling beauty parlor, and the tension with Baadal’s mother, Raheela, who fights for control of her son as she seeks to leave behind a life of disappointments and discover a freedom she’s never known.
Told in rotating perspectives spanning from 1966 to 1998, THE RIVER, THE TOWN is an intimate portrait of a family unraveling in the throes of indigence, and a tribute to the wounded love that keeps them tethered to each other. With stark and candid prose, Farah Ali traces one family’s fortunes to illuminate the relentless cycle of inequity, juxtaposing the tragic and grueling realities of poverty with the enduring struggle for compassion and humanity.
The television commercials showing hordes of starving children on the other side of the world provide only a glimpse of what life is like in other places.
It is stories like The River, The Town by Farah Ali that bring a deeper sense of awareness. Spanning a little over two decades and told from alternating perspectives, the story introduces a 17-year-old boy named Baadal who lives in a rural town in Pakistan.
Through his eyes, we see the poverty and the desperation for basics such as food and water. Where a mighty river once flowed is a mere shadow of its past. The old and young are dying from dehydration or dysentery.
One of the most meaningful scenes is the visit of a busload of volunteers who tour the town and then give out money to the residents. Rather than providing them with sustainable knowledge like how to dig wells or purify the water, the visitors toss bagged leftovers to the crowd from the catered meal.
Baadal’s strained relationship with his mother is highlighted throughout the story, particularly in light of his eventual marriage to a divorced woman. Ultimately, readers get a front-row seat as Baadal, his wife, and his mother struggle to escape the never-ending threat of poverty and starvation.
The River, The Town delivers a poignant story focusing on characters trying to eke out an existence in an inhospitable environment.
Farah Ali grew up in Karachi, Pakistan, and currently lives in London. Her work has been anthologized in the 2020 Pushcart Prize and received special mention in the 2018 Pushcart anthology. Her debut story collection PEOPLE WANT TO LIVE published with McSweeney’s Books, and includes new stories and some previously published in VQR, Shenandoah, The Arkansas International, MQR, The Southern Review, Kenyon Review, Copper Nickel, and others.
