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Biographical Note: "A strikingly original work of speculative fiction vibrating with extraordinary prose and heartbreaking poignance, Tom Lin's historical novel, Babylon, South Dakota, will stick in your mind for a long time...[A] remarkable literary journey as lush and abundant as the chrysanthemums that take over the Hsius' greenhouse." -- BookPage, starred reviewReview Quotes: "This is a novel like no other. What begins as the story of a young couple homesteading in the American West becomes something much richer and stranger, a journey into the nature of time, space, and death itself. The saga of the Hsiu family will challenge what you think you know not just about the West but about the entire universe: reader, prepare to be transformed."-- Anna North, author of Bog Queen and Outlawed Review Quotes: "A thoughtfully written, genre-crossing novel of great ingenuity."-- Kirkus (starred review) Review Quotes: "I particularly loved how, on the surface, Babylon, South Dakota is a story of a family on a farm, and they stay there. In South Dakota. But the language and the love and the richness of the connection are so incredibly lush and propulsive. There is also a terrible magic to it all; one that gives, one that takes. It's greedy, and it's generous. Much like the Midwest itself. Much like survival. And love. What Tom Lin has written is a remarkable achievement. It's a story of land and family, of love and violence. It is also a story of holding on even when it's past time to let go. This novel is incredibly moving, imaginatively rendered, and astonishing in its depth of feeling. I am such a huge fan."-- Lyz Lenz, author of This American Ex-Wife Review Quotes: "Carnegie Medalist Lin ( The Thousand Crimes of Ming Tsu, 2021) returns with a spectacular second novel featuring three generations of a Chinese American family caught in a U.S. government cover-up.... Lin's magical epic proves to be an extraordinarily immersive literary labyrinth. Lin's unique imagination and storytelling prowess has readers eagerly awaiting his next book."-- Booklist (starred review) Review Quotes: "Lin ( The Thousand Crimes of Ming Tsu) spins a beguiling tale of a secret U.S. military program and its strange effects on a family of Chinese immigrants...it's packed with intriguing fabulist turns. This offbeat novel will stay with readers."-- Publishers Weekly Review Quotes: "[Tom Lin] is back with Babylon, South Dakota, a novel just as colourful as his first. Where his first novel changed the landscape of the traditional cowboy story, his new book is a tribute to the American frontier." -- Asian Review of BooksReview Quotes: "Lin's ambitious tale is a page-turner from start to finish. Readers will see the American West through a radically new lens."-- Library Journal (starred review) Publisher Marketing: From the author of the Carnegie Medal in Fiction winner The Thousand Crimes of Ming Tsu comes a tantalizing, American West saga about a Chinese American family trying to survive on their Dakota farm as a powerful, mysterious, and morally dubious military secret shapes their lives. "Lin's gossamer prose is patient and full of wonders."-- Ed Park, author of Same Bed Different Dreams and An Oral History of Atlantis When Saul Keng Hsiu and his wife, Mei Lee, move from China to the United States to take possession of a 160-acre homestead bequeathed to them by a distant relative, all they have are the possessions on their back, some hidden gold, and a pocketful of chrysanthemum seeds. After a rocky start and a long, harsh winter, the couple find themselves successfully raising chrysanthemums and livestock, and soon after, a daughter, Mara. But when representatives from the US Army Corps of Engineers buy an acre of the Hsiu's farmland and begin building a missile silo, the inexplicable starts to occur: Mara can commune with the animals on the farm, Mei develops a hidden talent for augury, and the chrysanthemums become impervious to everything. When the Hsius learn that the project on their farm is an effort to make America's nuclear deterrent invulnerable, they see firsthand the long arm of power and empire. In the years and generations that follow, increasingly impacted by the silo and its residue, the Hsius experience strange, wondrous, and tragic events on their farm. An ambitious epic and an ode to the beauty and glory of our connection to the natural world , Babylon, South Dakota upends the idea of "strangers in a strange land" to become a classic American story. It is a daring novel about how choices reverberate across generations and asks us what we owe to one another. TIME Magazine's Most Anticipated Books of the Year Town & Country's Best Books of Spring 2026 New York Times Book Review's 32 Novels We're Excited About This Spring The Spokesman Review's 12 upcoming books we're excited to read Review Citations:
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