Babylon, South Dakota

“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)“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“A thoughtfully written, genre-crossing novel of great ingenuity.”–Kirkus (starred review)“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“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)“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“I loved this novel, which was so transporting that I forgot to look at my phone…Lin’s gossamer prose is patient and full of wonders.”–Ed Park, author of Same Bed Different Dreams and An Oral History of Atlantis“I can’t remember the last time I felt so lit up by a novel. Lin has built this wildly ambitious, deeply strange world with its own ecology and physics and sociology that is also, importantly, our world in all times past, present, and future. I love these characters. I love this prose. Babylon, South Dakota is a chilling diorama of what and how and who empire steals from us. There’s also a dream-amplifying horn, light animal-whispering, a perfect dog named Santui. It’s wonder-full, enchanted and enchanting. I’m getting goosebumps right now as I type. This is the most excited I’ve been about a new book in ages.”–Kaveh Akbar, author of Martyr!“Tom Lin has written a flawless novel that belongs in a category all its own. The prose is so precise, so vivid, that even everyday objects seem fantastical, invented just for this world. I’ll never be able to look at stained glass, or chrysanthemums, or even binoculars without being immediately transported back to Babylon, South Dakota. I’d die for–I’d go to another world for–Santui.”–Paige Lewis, author of Canon

Tom Lin was born in China and immigrated to the United States when he was four. A graduate of Pomona College, he also holds a PhD from the University of California, Davis. His first novel, The Thousand Crimes of Ming Tsu, won the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence. He teaches English and creative writing at the University of Iowa.

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