Shelf Awareness wrote a warm review for Farah Ali's debut novel THE RIVER, THE TOWN, drawing favorable comparisons to her debut linked story collection PEOPLE WANT TO LIVE by calling out "similar aspects of spare, unblinking incisiveness" and "multiple perspectives form an intricate narrative, further complicated by unreliable characters,” delivering a strong overall verdict: "In this teeming maelstrom of (in)humanity, Ali posits a wrenching, everyman tragedy that shrewdly reads as prophetic warning, nimbly cast in potent storytelling." Dzanc Books published the novel on October 17, 2023.