What do you think?
Rate this book
Babylon, South Dakota
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.
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 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.
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 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.
336 pages, Hardcover
First published May 26, 2026
About the author
Tom Lin
2 books232 followersTom Lin was born in Beijing and lives in Iowa City with his partner, Pia, their cat, and their dog. His first novel, THE THOUSAND CRIMES OF MING TSU, won the 2022 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction; he is its youngest winner. He studies how popular culture participates in the shaping of technologies, with particular interest in the relation between science fiction and nuclear weapons. He teaches English and creative writing at the University of Iowa.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 92 reviews
November 17, 2025
Babylon, South Dakota is generational epic that blends magical realism with immigrant family drama, and political critique into something intimate and fantastical. The magical or science-fiction elements of the story can seem a bit too surreal and strange. Especially when it comes to the world building.
With themes such as empire, legacy, and power the story can feel heavy at times but Lin weaves together the magical and realistic threads well. There is a bit of philosophical depth that can feel demanding at times but it is rewarding. I myself enjoy vivid, atmosphere-rich writing with language that reverberates magic and in my opinion that is what Lin delivers.
If you prefer realism with no magical or fantasy elements or a fast paced read without a lot of emotional weight this will not be the read for you. But if you enjoy morally and philosophically dense fiction that is not afraid to take on heavy themes and do it with a magical feel, then this is a must read.
Overall its an unsettling and beautifully strange family epic that examines how power structures, history, and family narratives intersect.
With themes such as empire, legacy, and power the story can feel heavy at times but Lin weaves together the magical and realistic threads well. There is a bit of philosophical depth that can feel demanding at times but it is rewarding. I myself enjoy vivid, atmosphere-rich writing with language that reverberates magic and in my opinion that is what Lin delivers.
If you prefer realism with no magical or fantasy elements or a fast paced read without a lot of emotional weight this will not be the read for you. But if you enjoy morally and philosophically dense fiction that is not afraid to take on heavy themes and do it with a magical feel, then this is a must read.
Overall its an unsettling and beautifully strange family epic that examines how power structures, history, and family narratives intersect.
May 22, 2026
Very little plot, mostly just vibes. Lovely commentary on family bonds. Perfect sci-fi element in the guise of military experiments. The writing is poetic and beautiful. Lin perfectly describes feelings I never knew how to explain before. All the characters are so perfectly human, they could step right out off the pages into our reality and o wouldn’t know the difference.
July 15, 2026
Oh boy, this book really didn't stick around in my memory. As other reviewers have stated, the generational saga of this Chinese family adapting to a new life and culture in South Dakota was engaging. Saul Keng Hsiu and his wife, Mei Lee along with their daughter, Mara encounter hardships and prejudice while also trying to carve a living for themselves.
But something about the pacing of the storyline made it difficult for me to really invest my attention. Maybe I just couldn't capture all the elements the author wanted me to. So, it didn't work for me, but that doesn't mean it wouldn't work for someone else.
Publication Date 26/05/26
Goodreads Review 07/06/26
Thanks to NetGalley and Little, Brown and Company for access to this title. I am auto-approved by the publisher. All opinions expressed are my own.
But something about the pacing of the storyline made it difficult for me to really invest my attention. Maybe I just couldn't capture all the elements the author wanted me to. So, it didn't work for me, but that doesn't mean it wouldn't work for someone else.
Publication Date 26/05/26
Goodreads Review 07/06/26
Thanks to NetGalley and Little, Brown and Company for access to this title. I am auto-approved by the publisher. All opinions expressed are my own.
June 5, 2026
A self-assured, droning mess. This book set itself up with all the makings of a masterpiece and just let it all lie on the floor, kicked it around some, then kept going, Bandaiding new stuff on the end for a hundred pages, slapped the word SAGA on it and called it a day. Piss me off and waste my time. Good grief.
July 10, 2026
Based on purely a technical level, this could 5 stars with how lush and well-crafted Lin’s writing is. He develops a specific atmosphere beautifully and I really enjoyed most of my time reading this. I loved the characters, although I normally prefer there to be a bit more depth to characters in development and just overall. The magical realism and family saga of it all also reminded me of Gabriel Garcia Marquez, but in a more muted way.
I do think the plot was too amorphous in general and this really mattered by the end because a lot technically happens but it feels almost like it doesn’t really matter because you don’t fully understand what’s going on, so there’s no real drive to get to the end and the biggest action occurs off-page so the ending is just like…wtf happened and what was the point???
Idk how to conclude my thoughts about this one but it is really worth reading
I do think the plot was too amorphous in general and this really mattered by the end because a lot technically happens but it feels almost like it doesn’t really matter because you don’t fully understand what’s going on, so there’s no real drive to get to the end and the biggest action occurs off-page so the ending is just like…wtf happened and what was the point???
Idk how to conclude my thoughts about this one but it is really worth reading
June 10, 2026
Magical realism, ghosts, parallel universes, interdimensional portals, suspicious government goings-on - it's all here, yet for me, Tom Lin meanders from one idea to the next without bringing it all together. Shame, because the story of Chinese immigrants to South Dakota starts out promising, and the characters are well-developed.
Did Not Finish
July 8, 2026liked the premise, wish it moved a little bit quicker. Prose was very poetic, but not sure it was for me :)
June 29, 2026
Magical realism done right. I could live in Tom Lin's beautiful prose forever. Maybe there's a world out there where I do.
May 20, 2026
Elusive and dreamlike. I liked the imaginative force of this one, even if it lost some momentum by the end.
The prose is both the book’s greatest strength and, occasionally, its weakness: rich, vivid, full of beautiful imagery and unexpected ideas, but also prone to long meandering sentences and paragraphs that sometimes slowed things down. I found myself wishing the final stretch had been tighter, but I was captivated by the world itself — the speculative elements, the beauty of those ghostly chrysanthemums and that stained-glass greenhouse, the feeling that enormous stretches of time had passed and left these characters adrift inside them.
This book left me with a lot of stunning mental images, although it felt a little untethered thematically.
The prose is both the book’s greatest strength and, occasionally, its weakness: rich, vivid, full of beautiful imagery and unexpected ideas, but also prone to long meandering sentences and paragraphs that sometimes slowed things down. I found myself wishing the final stretch had been tighter, but I was captivated by the world itself — the speculative elements, the beauty of those ghostly chrysanthemums and that stained-glass greenhouse, the feeling that enormous stretches of time had passed and left these characters adrift inside them.
This book left me with a lot of stunning mental images, although it felt a little untethered thematically.
May 12, 2026
Thank you Netgalley for the early copy of Babylon, South Dakota. This story begins when Saul (his name would become this soon in the story)and his wife Mei leave their homeland in China after famine. They arrive in Babylon to land left to them by a distant relative with only a. Few chrysanthemum seeds and a bit of gold Mei hides away. Things get weird. The government comes and buys an acre of the land and builds a missile silo. This story is filled with magical realism that ranges from whimsical to bizarre. I was very invested in the first half of the book, but the last half was so wordy I continually found myself skimming entire pages. One scene in particular was dragged out page after page thr could have been a few paragraphs. I actually didn’t notice until I was about 70% into the book that there was no quotation marks. So apparently it didn’t bother me or take away from the story! :) Overall I liked this mysterious and fantastical novel about a good family who continued to fight to just love their lives with their loved ones.
June 28, 2026
In this roundabout and fallible way, they learned about nuclear missiles, the problem of evil, the logic of deterrence, the nature of the northern lights, the origin of children—which Junior said he already knew—and the care and keeping of ghosts.Tom Lin is the first author who's truly registered in my paradigm as being younger than me. It goes some way in explaining the protectiveness I feel towards this second novel of his, which I picked up on the strength of The Thousand Crimes of Ming Tsu and subsequently watched the rating slowly but surely tank. Having finished, I can see the risks of taking on a Chinese Midwestern turning on the trundle of Faulkner in elaborate prose and monumental pathos, which makes for a fascinating proposition that is also woefully out of sync with modern popular acclaim. From the beginning to the two-thirds mark, I was pleasurably keeping up, especially during the more marvelous instances of ye olde fashioned domesticity increasingly intertwined with magical realism/sci-f- plots, but by the end I was being emotionally concussed in so close a succession that I had to drop the rating down to a three. Still, Lin remains one to watch, and his ability to get something like this published gives me hope of him being in a sure enough place to take his time with his craft for however long he's willing to grace the publishing market with his presence. Being five years his elder, here's one more reason for me to bother sticking around to see what literature, despite everything, is capable of bringing.
The heavens of his youth in the old country were here as well, indeed were everywhere, would be everywhere for all time, and yet here in this moment he was older than he ever could have imagined.P.S. I appreciate that here, as well as, I hope, in certain other sectors of contemporary Anglo lit, characters are allowed to speak languages other than English without textually Jekyll-Hydeing into living museum exhibits.
July 5, 2026
4.5 this is one of those books that feels like a classic. It’s a little slow but in a way that feels very methodical and meaningful
June 7, 2026
Despite not being a fan of magical realism, the sprawling story of the Hsius, told through Lin’s eerie and enveloping prose, made reading this book a wonderfully unusual experience. Brief rtc, 3.5 stars.
July 14, 2026
Babylon, South Dakota is one of those rare novels that completely defies easy categorization. Blending historical fiction, literary fiction, family saga, and magical realism, Tom Lin has created something that feels both deeply intimate and wonderfully strange.
At its heart, this is the story of the Hsiu family—Chinese immigrants Saul and Mei, and later their daughter Mara—as they build a life on an unforgiving South Dakota homestead. Their resilience, love, and determination pulled me in immediately, but what truly captivated me was the way the ordinary slowly gives way to the extraordinary. When the government builds a missile silo on their land, the story quietly shifts into something haunting, mysterious, and profoundly moving.
Lin's prose is absolutely stunning. Every page is rich with imagery, and the South Dakota landscape feels as alive as any of the characters. The magical realism never overshadows the emotional core of the novel—instead, it deepens the exploration of identity, belonging, family, grief, and the lasting consequences of both personal and historical choices.
This is a book that asks you to settle into its rhythm and trust where it's taking you. The result is a story that lingers long after the final page, leaving you reflecting on its characters and themes for days afterward.
If you enjoy beautifully written literary fiction with unforgettable characters, multigenerational family stories, and just enough magic to make you question the boundaries of reality, Babylon, South Dakota is one I wholeheartedly recommend.
Thank you to Little, Brown and Company and NetGalley for the advance reader copy. All thoughts are my own.
At its heart, this is the story of the Hsiu family—Chinese immigrants Saul and Mei, and later their daughter Mara—as they build a life on an unforgiving South Dakota homestead. Their resilience, love, and determination pulled me in immediately, but what truly captivated me was the way the ordinary slowly gives way to the extraordinary. When the government builds a missile silo on their land, the story quietly shifts into something haunting, mysterious, and profoundly moving.
Lin's prose is absolutely stunning. Every page is rich with imagery, and the South Dakota landscape feels as alive as any of the characters. The magical realism never overshadows the emotional core of the novel—instead, it deepens the exploration of identity, belonging, family, grief, and the lasting consequences of both personal and historical choices.
This is a book that asks you to settle into its rhythm and trust where it's taking you. The result is a story that lingers long after the final page, leaving you reflecting on its characters and themes for days afterward.
If you enjoy beautifully written literary fiction with unforgettable characters, multigenerational family stories, and just enough magic to make you question the boundaries of reality, Babylon, South Dakota is one I wholeheartedly recommend.
Thank you to Little, Brown and Company and NetGalley for the advance reader copy. All thoughts are my own.
May 26, 2026
Babylon, South Dakota by Tom Lin is a beautifully crafted and thought-provoking novel that blends mystery, family history, and cultural identity into a deeply reflective story. Set in a small Midwestern town, the novel follows characters grappling with memory, displacement, and the hidden tensions beneath everyday life. Lin’s writing is atmospheric and literary, drawing readers into a quiet but emotionally charged narrative that unfolds with patience and precision.
One of the novel’s greatest strengths is its rich characterization. Lin explores the inner lives of his characters with sensitivity and depth, allowing their struggles with belonging, identity, and personal history to feel authentic and relatable. The setting itself becomes an important part of the story, with the isolated landscape of South Dakota mirroring the emotional distance and loneliness experienced by many of the characters.
The prose is elegant and restrained, relying more on subtle emotional moments than dramatic twists. Lin carefully layers themes of immigration, generational trauma, and the search for connection without becoming overly heavy-handed. Readers who appreciate literary fiction that focuses on mood, character, and emotional complexity will likely find the novel especially rewarding.
Although the pacing is slower and more contemplative than plot-driven, Babylon, South Dakota succeeds because of its emotional resonance and beautifully observed storytelling. Overall, it is a haunting and memorable novel that explores the ways people carry the past with them while searching for meaning and belonging in the present.
One of the novel’s greatest strengths is its rich characterization. Lin explores the inner lives of his characters with sensitivity and depth, allowing their struggles with belonging, identity, and personal history to feel authentic and relatable. The setting itself becomes an important part of the story, with the isolated landscape of South Dakota mirroring the emotional distance and loneliness experienced by many of the characters.
The prose is elegant and restrained, relying more on subtle emotional moments than dramatic twists. Lin carefully layers themes of immigration, generational trauma, and the search for connection without becoming overly heavy-handed. Readers who appreciate literary fiction that focuses on mood, character, and emotional complexity will likely find the novel especially rewarding.
Although the pacing is slower and more contemplative than plot-driven, Babylon, South Dakota succeeds because of its emotional resonance and beautifully observed storytelling. Overall, it is a haunting and memorable novel that explores the ways people carry the past with them while searching for meaning and belonging in the present.
July 14, 2026
3.75 not sure I understood 100%. Well written, interesting, literary.
July 18, 2026
What a beautifully written book. Gets to the heart of life. Gives voice to universal thoughts on the meaning of our existence. For me it verbalised thoughts and emotions the reflect human nature.
June 7, 2026
Babylon, South Dakota is a beautifully written, imaginative, and, at times, heartbreaking novel. I especially admire the way author Tom Lin develops and presents the characters. By the end, I felt like I truly knew the protagonists, Saul and Mei. If they walked through my door, we could strike up a conversation as if we’d known each other for years. Like all of us, Saul and Mei combine threads from the past with the opportunities of the present to create lives worth living, all the while being shaped by forces just beyond the edge of understanding. Lin’s prose is exceptional, with sentences and word choices that are vivid, precise, and highly original.
I also loved the novel’s blend of ordinary life with magical and science-fiction elements. That juxtaposition gives the story a distinctive feel, both grounded in the reality of a 160-acre flower farm and in the magical possibilities beyond. Lin does not explain everything, which I find appealing. The open-endedness of some plot elements invited me to fill in the gaps and continue thinking about the book after finishing it.
I also loved the novel’s blend of ordinary life with magical and science-fiction elements. That juxtaposition gives the story a distinctive feel, both grounded in the reality of a 160-acre flower farm and in the magical possibilities beyond. Lin does not explain everything, which I find appealing. The open-endedness of some plot elements invited me to fill in the gaps and continue thinking about the book after finishing it.
June 15, 2026
deeply moving
Tom Lin does it again with his newest piece of fiction. Characters are so fully developed. Transforms reader into very real and not real worlds. Fantastic.
Tom Lin does it again with his newest piece of fiction. Characters are so fully developed. Transforms reader into very real and not real worlds. Fantastic.
June 9, 2026
Absolutely stunning.
May 24, 2026
What a layered novel, and weird to boot! I have always struggled a bit with magical realism stories so was a little hesitant on picking this up, but from the synopsis I just had a feeling this would be an exception. And it was!
This felt to me to take place somewhere out of our time. Little hints here and there give the reader an inkling of the time period but the way we experience time passing for these characters made this feel outside of a defined time period. The magical realism elements were subtle and perfectly placed in my opinion.
Yes, we have a government owned section of land that was bought from our main characters used to house a secret device. But for the most part this is unrelated to our characters and they show very little curiosity about what they’re doing on that land. The focus is on our characters - this is a multigenerational epic following immigrants. We see them build their life and their business and get snippets of what life was like for them before.
The writing was flowery and did feel quite dense on the whole. I think it was necessary for the story and tone this was meant to convey and think a lighter hand here would have made the story feel a little almost silly. It added to the subtle whimsy threaded throughout. The imagery with the chrysanthemums was my favorite part.
I don’t think this book will be for everyone but it was for me.
I received an eARC via NetGalley.
This felt to me to take place somewhere out of our time. Little hints here and there give the reader an inkling of the time period but the way we experience time passing for these characters made this feel outside of a defined time period. The magical realism elements were subtle and perfectly placed in my opinion.
Yes, we have a government owned section of land that was bought from our main characters used to house a secret device. But for the most part this is unrelated to our characters and they show very little curiosity about what they’re doing on that land. The focus is on our characters - this is a multigenerational epic following immigrants. We see them build their life and their business and get snippets of what life was like for them before.
The writing was flowery and did feel quite dense on the whole. I think it was necessary for the story and tone this was meant to convey and think a lighter hand here would have made the story feel a little almost silly. It added to the subtle whimsy threaded throughout. The imagery with the chrysanthemums was my favorite part.
I don’t think this book will be for everyone but it was for me.
I received an eARC via NetGalley.
May 11, 2026
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.
What a lovely, unexpected story! I adored both the setting and the characters, and the storytelling structure was unique and interesting.
This story takes place on a farm plot in Babylon, South Dakota, where Mei and Saul immigrate and raise their family, alongside fields of chrysanthemum flowers and their livestock. The remote yet beautiful landscape takes center stage here and is so vividly described. The rolling plains and big sky seem the perfect setting for the more magical elements of the story, and I felt immersed and almost outside of time while living there with the characters.
During the story we follow the lives of Saul and Mei, who move to this remote farmhouse from China, where they both have survived the horrors of famine and the death of their families. Their memories of home are a recurrent theme, and despite China being so far away it feels sometimes right across the next hill. Saul brings with him his skills cultivating chrysanthemums, and these soon carpet the landscape, while Mei takes on some livestock and they make a living managing a farm stand. Soon they have a daughter Mara, who grows up and starts a family of her own, having two children with Luke, a local kid from town. Saul, Mei, Mara, Luke, and their sons Junior and Caleb all live and grow up on the same plot of land and the way their family dynamics evolved as they got older was lovely to see.
Fans of magical realism and nonlinear storytelling would also love this, as many elements of the story require you to suspend your disbelief for a moment, so if this is not something you enjoy then maybe this would not be for you. However I thought this made the story fascinating and much deeper than it otherwise would have been. One major plot point is that the government has built a sort of nuclear facility in a silo on the edge of their farmland, which causes many peculiar things to happen. The chrysanthemum flowers turn white and start to grow truly everywhere no matter the season, an aurora shines in the sky above their farm for months, ghosts start to appear in their fields on camera, Mei begins to design extra rooms in their house that mysteriously become real but only to her, and time sometimes seems to blur between past, present, and future.
Overall this was a lovely world to escape to, and the relationships of everyone in the family and their connections to the past and future was beautiful. I think the only wish I have is that it would have been a bit more sad or had made me cry- but would definitely recommend!
What a lovely, unexpected story! I adored both the setting and the characters, and the storytelling structure was unique and interesting.
This story takes place on a farm plot in Babylon, South Dakota, where Mei and Saul immigrate and raise their family, alongside fields of chrysanthemum flowers and their livestock. The remote yet beautiful landscape takes center stage here and is so vividly described. The rolling plains and big sky seem the perfect setting for the more magical elements of the story, and I felt immersed and almost outside of time while living there with the characters.
During the story we follow the lives of Saul and Mei, who move to this remote farmhouse from China, where they both have survived the horrors of famine and the death of their families. Their memories of home are a recurrent theme, and despite China being so far away it feels sometimes right across the next hill. Saul brings with him his skills cultivating chrysanthemums, and these soon carpet the landscape, while Mei takes on some livestock and they make a living managing a farm stand. Soon they have a daughter Mara, who grows up and starts a family of her own, having two children with Luke, a local kid from town. Saul, Mei, Mara, Luke, and their sons Junior and Caleb all live and grow up on the same plot of land and the way their family dynamics evolved as they got older was lovely to see.
Fans of magical realism and nonlinear storytelling would also love this, as many elements of the story require you to suspend your disbelief for a moment, so if this is not something you enjoy then maybe this would not be for you. However I thought this made the story fascinating and much deeper than it otherwise would have been. One major plot point is that the government has built a sort of nuclear facility in a silo on the edge of their farmland, which causes many peculiar things to happen. The chrysanthemum flowers turn white and start to grow truly everywhere no matter the season, an aurora shines in the sky above their farm for months, ghosts start to appear in their fields on camera, Mei begins to design extra rooms in their house that mysteriously become real but only to her, and time sometimes seems to blur between past, present, and future.
Overall this was a lovely world to escape to, and the relationships of everyone in the family and their connections to the past and future was beautiful. I think the only wish I have is that it would have been a bit more sad or had made me cry- but would definitely recommend!
June 28, 2026
Babylon, South Dakota is the sophomore novel by Tom Lin, and it blew me away. It’s the story of couple Hsiu Keng and Lee Mei, a Chinese couple in their thirties that comes to the U.S. when they inherit land from a distant relative. Hsiu adopts the American name Saul, and so Saul and Mei move into their new home, such as it is, and make plans for the future.
My thanks go to NetGalley and Little, Brown and Company for the review copy. This book is for sale now.
The story begins straightforward enough, and then it gradually becomes stranger. Our enterprising couple are completely new to the United States, with very little English and not much in terms of cultural knowledge or awareness of the environment into which they have so bravely immigrated. Mao has recently come to power in China, so the time period would be the 1960s, but their home has no indoor toilet or heat, and so they must earn money for the improvements they will need. They intend to farm, and Saul is determined that their crop will be chrysanthemums, because this is what his family grew in China. They come to the States without a lot of money, but they have a good-sized supply of seeds as well as a little gold, which is the only currency Mei trusts. They have a baby girl and name her Mara.
And then the U.S. military knocks on their door.
Project Babylon is top secret, and it requires small parcels of land in a sparsely populated area; South Dakota fits the bill. They bring paperwork to be signed, and in return, the couple must sign over a small portion of their land. The price is non-negotiable; so is the sale. They are to stay away from the area once the fence is erected.
As well they should. Once the program unfolds, all sorts of other strange things begin to happen.
I am completely spellbound a short way into the story, and not merely because of the plot points, fascinating though they will become. Rather, the word smithery is so powerful and the sense of intimacy so strong that I am forever bonded to this little family. The imagery is potent, and the vocabulary is highly literate. In fact, I would suggest that recent immigrants with limited English not attempt to read this novel.
I have dozens of notes and quotes selected, but instead, I will keep them to myself, because everything here is better when you come to it without much advance preparation. At the outset, the story is interesting, but not unusually so; a bit further in, it appears to be a stronger-than-average book; and by the 67%, my notes to myself say, “I am so in love with this strange little book!” It’s the sort of tale that takes the reader through every possible emotion; at one point, the tension is so thick that I genuinely consider peeking ahead—which I nearly never do—because I just can’t stand not knowing how it’s going to come out! I refrained, and am glad I did so.
Finishing a book is usually good news for me, because I can go write my review and move onto the next one, but this is one of those rare instances in which I feel bereaved when it’s over. This sensation lasted into the next couple of days, when I wanted to read it, then realized it was done.
For those that love stories with strong character development, resonant settings, and quirky plot twists, I wholeheartedly recommend this novel. Likewise, I recommend it to those that love historical fiction, immigrant stories, and magical realism. There’s nothing else like it!
My thanks go to NetGalley and Little, Brown and Company for the review copy. This book is for sale now.
The story begins straightforward enough, and then it gradually becomes stranger. Our enterprising couple are completely new to the United States, with very little English and not much in terms of cultural knowledge or awareness of the environment into which they have so bravely immigrated. Mao has recently come to power in China, so the time period would be the 1960s, but their home has no indoor toilet or heat, and so they must earn money for the improvements they will need. They intend to farm, and Saul is determined that their crop will be chrysanthemums, because this is what his family grew in China. They come to the States without a lot of money, but they have a good-sized supply of seeds as well as a little gold, which is the only currency Mei trusts. They have a baby girl and name her Mara.
And then the U.S. military knocks on their door.
Project Babylon is top secret, and it requires small parcels of land in a sparsely populated area; South Dakota fits the bill. They bring paperwork to be signed, and in return, the couple must sign over a small portion of their land. The price is non-negotiable; so is the sale. They are to stay away from the area once the fence is erected.
As well they should. Once the program unfolds, all sorts of other strange things begin to happen.
I am completely spellbound a short way into the story, and not merely because of the plot points, fascinating though they will become. Rather, the word smithery is so powerful and the sense of intimacy so strong that I am forever bonded to this little family. The imagery is potent, and the vocabulary is highly literate. In fact, I would suggest that recent immigrants with limited English not attempt to read this novel.
I have dozens of notes and quotes selected, but instead, I will keep them to myself, because everything here is better when you come to it without much advance preparation. At the outset, the story is interesting, but not unusually so; a bit further in, it appears to be a stronger-than-average book; and by the 67%, my notes to myself say, “I am so in love with this strange little book!” It’s the sort of tale that takes the reader through every possible emotion; at one point, the tension is so thick that I genuinely consider peeking ahead—which I nearly never do—because I just can’t stand not knowing how it’s going to come out! I refrained, and am glad I did so.
Finishing a book is usually good news for me, because I can go write my review and move onto the next one, but this is one of those rare instances in which I feel bereaved when it’s over. This sensation lasted into the next couple of days, when I wanted to read it, then realized it was done.
For those that love stories with strong character development, resonant settings, and quirky plot twists, I wholeheartedly recommend this novel. Likewise, I recommend it to those that love historical fiction, immigrant stories, and magical realism. There’s nothing else like it!
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for sharing an ARC with me in exchange for my honest review!
I went into this one really wanting to love it—it has so many elements that should have worked for me—but ultimately, I made the decision to DNF at 48%.
There are pieces I genuinely appreciated. The setting is vivid and atmospheric (two things that usually work really well for me!). Mara and Mei were by far the most compelling characters for me. Mei's backstory added emotional depth and I loved Mara's personality, so I found myself most engaged when the narrative focused on them. I also loved the recurring presence of the flowers, they added a subtle, almost symbolic layer that I wish had been explored more. And the dog ended up being one of my favorite “characters" (if you know me though this probably isn't a surprise).
One of the most impactful moments for me was a hospital scene involving Saul, where he speaks English to a doctor who still insists on using a translator. It was heartbreaking and frustrating in a way that felt very real, highlighting the lived experience of immigrant families and the kinds of biases that still exist today. That moment, in particular, felt grounded and meaningful.
However, the book as a whole just wasn’t coming together for me. The magic system felt underdeveloped and never clearly explained, which made it difficult to understand what was happening or why, especially as more unexplained or seemingly random events occurred. Combined with the magical realism elements, this lack of clarity made the story feel disjointed at times.
The prose also didn’t quite land for me. It leans heavily into long, flowing, and overly descriptive sentences that at times felt more focused on impressing the reader than serving the story. This contributed to a very slow pace, and I often felt like the narrative was weighed down by excessive backstory that didn’t meaningfully move the plot forward, much of which could have been more concise without losing impact.
I also struggled with the structure. Timeline shifts were difficult to follow, and there were moments where I couldn’t tell when events were taking place. There were also inconsistencies that pulled me out of the story, particularly around character ages. For example, Mei is described as being 15–20 years older than Abram (who appears to be at least 18), but later references to her age and life stage don’t fully align.
On a character level, Saul was difficult for me to connect with. He often came across as inept, and it felt like the narrative leaned into that portrayal in a way that made him frustrating rather than compelling.
Overall, this is a book that had a lot of potential: strong themes, an interesting premise, and moments of emotional resonance, but it just didn’t fully come together for me. That said, readers who enjoy slower-paced, highly descriptive writing and more abstract magical realism may have a different experience.
I went into this one really wanting to love it—it has so many elements that should have worked for me—but ultimately, I made the decision to DNF at 48%.
There are pieces I genuinely appreciated. The setting is vivid and atmospheric (two things that usually work really well for me!). Mara and Mei were by far the most compelling characters for me. Mei's backstory added emotional depth and I loved Mara's personality, so I found myself most engaged when the narrative focused on them. I also loved the recurring presence of the flowers, they added a subtle, almost symbolic layer that I wish had been explored more. And the dog ended up being one of my favorite “characters" (if you know me though this probably isn't a surprise).
One of the most impactful moments for me was a hospital scene involving Saul, where he speaks English to a doctor who still insists on using a translator. It was heartbreaking and frustrating in a way that felt very real, highlighting the lived experience of immigrant families and the kinds of biases that still exist today. That moment, in particular, felt grounded and meaningful.
However, the book as a whole just wasn’t coming together for me. The magic system felt underdeveloped and never clearly explained, which made it difficult to understand what was happening or why, especially as more unexplained or seemingly random events occurred. Combined with the magical realism elements, this lack of clarity made the story feel disjointed at times.
The prose also didn’t quite land for me. It leans heavily into long, flowing, and overly descriptive sentences that at times felt more focused on impressing the reader than serving the story. This contributed to a very slow pace, and I often felt like the narrative was weighed down by excessive backstory that didn’t meaningfully move the plot forward, much of which could have been more concise without losing impact.
I also struggled with the structure. Timeline shifts were difficult to follow, and there were moments where I couldn’t tell when events were taking place. There were also inconsistencies that pulled me out of the story, particularly around character ages. For example, Mei is described as being 15–20 years older than Abram (who appears to be at least 18), but later references to her age and life stage don’t fully align.
On a character level, Saul was difficult for me to connect with. He often came across as inept, and it felt like the narrative leaned into that portrayal in a way that made him frustrating rather than compelling.
Overall, this is a book that had a lot of potential: strong themes, an interesting premise, and moments of emotional resonance, but it just didn’t fully come together for me. That said, readers who enjoy slower-paced, highly descriptive writing and more abstract magical realism may have a different experience.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
Thank you to NetGalley and Little, Brown for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Babylon, South Dakota follows the Hsiu family. Saul and Mei are Chinese immigrants who settle on a 160-acre homestead in South Dakota after surviving the Cultural Revolution. They farm chrysanthemums and livestock, raise their daughter Mara, and contend with a government missile silo built on the edge of their land. From there, the story ventures into increasingly surreal territory: flowers that bloom year-round, auroras that hang in the sky for months, ghosts appearing on camera, rooms that materialize out of nowhere, and a transdimensional device that supposedly grants immortality.
I'll start with what worked: the immigrant experience at the heart of the story has real emotional weight, and the premise of a family building a life on unforgiving land is compelling on its own. There are individual moments, like a scene where Saul speaks English to a doctor who insists on using a translator, that land with genuine force.
But the execution lost me. The prose is dense and overly ornamental, with long, winding sentences that feel more concerned with sounding literary than moving the story forward. The unpunctuated dialogue adds another layer of visual heaviness to already thick paragraphs. I kept waiting for the narrative to tighten up and find its footing, but it never did.
My bigger issue is with the speculative elements. As someone with a science background who reads a lot of sci-fi, I couldn't get past the sheer absurdity of the scenarios. The book introduces concepts like "Project Methuselah" and transdimensional physics, but treats them with a hand-wavy magical realism that has no internal logic or consistency. It's less science fiction and more science fantasy, and not in a way that felt intentional or earned. The supernatural events pile up without explanation or payoff, and the result is a story that feels untethered from any kind of stakes or structure.
And that's the core problem: I struggled to find a plot. Events happen, time shifts around, backstory accumulates, but there's no real throughline pulling you forward. The pacing is glacial, weighed down by excessive description and tangents that don't meaningfully serve the story. By the midpoint, I felt like I was reading a sketch of a novel that had been stretched well past its natural length.
This was my first Tom Lin book. Readers who enjoy slow, atmospheric magical realism with lush prose may connect with this in ways I didn't, and several other reviewers clearly loved it. But for anyone coming to this expecting grounded sci-fi, or even speculative fiction with a coherent internal framework, I'd set those expectations aside. This one just wasn't for me.
Babylon, South Dakota follows the Hsiu family. Saul and Mei are Chinese immigrants who settle on a 160-acre homestead in South Dakota after surviving the Cultural Revolution. They farm chrysanthemums and livestock, raise their daughter Mara, and contend with a government missile silo built on the edge of their land. From there, the story ventures into increasingly surreal territory: flowers that bloom year-round, auroras that hang in the sky for months, ghosts appearing on camera, rooms that materialize out of nowhere, and a transdimensional device that supposedly grants immortality.
I'll start with what worked: the immigrant experience at the heart of the story has real emotional weight, and the premise of a family building a life on unforgiving land is compelling on its own. There are individual moments, like a scene where Saul speaks English to a doctor who insists on using a translator, that land with genuine force.
But the execution lost me. The prose is dense and overly ornamental, with long, winding sentences that feel more concerned with sounding literary than moving the story forward. The unpunctuated dialogue adds another layer of visual heaviness to already thick paragraphs. I kept waiting for the narrative to tighten up and find its footing, but it never did.
My bigger issue is with the speculative elements. As someone with a science background who reads a lot of sci-fi, I couldn't get past the sheer absurdity of the scenarios. The book introduces concepts like "Project Methuselah" and transdimensional physics, but treats them with a hand-wavy magical realism that has no internal logic or consistency. It's less science fiction and more science fantasy, and not in a way that felt intentional or earned. The supernatural events pile up without explanation or payoff, and the result is a story that feels untethered from any kind of stakes or structure.
And that's the core problem: I struggled to find a plot. Events happen, time shifts around, backstory accumulates, but there's no real throughline pulling you forward. The pacing is glacial, weighed down by excessive description and tangents that don't meaningfully serve the story. By the midpoint, I felt like I was reading a sketch of a novel that had been stretched well past its natural length.
This was my first Tom Lin book. Readers who enjoy slow, atmospheric magical realism with lush prose may connect with this in ways I didn't, and several other reviewers clearly loved it. But for anyone coming to this expecting grounded sci-fi, or even speculative fiction with a coherent internal framework, I'd set those expectations aside. This one just wasn't for me.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
A richly imagined and deeply compelling family saga. Lin charts the ups and downs of a newly emigrated Chinese couple in the American West, tilling an unforgiving land under inscrutable weather and reaping whatever meager fruits their labors can yield. Their resilient family unit bends and bends under the weight of that toil, their successes made all the sweeter by their struggles—much like the chrysanthemums that Saul must nurture to develop hardier stock, also transplanted from China and striving to take hold in this harsh new land.
Tom Lin’s prose is nothing short of otherworldly. There are countless stunning passages and I found myself rereading and highlighting early on, before the story pulled me deeper in. Some may be turned off by the unpunctuated dialogue, as it adds visual density to already thick paragraphs, but I stopped noticing it once I adjusted.
If you enjoyed the setting and beautifully interwoven magical realism of Karen Russell’s The Antidote, this novel will surely sweep you away. It feels destined for major literary award contention.
My thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.
Blog | Twitter | Instagram | Bluesky
Tom Lin’s prose is nothing short of otherworldly. There are countless stunning passages and I found myself rereading and highlighting early on, before the story pulled me deeper in. Some may be turned off by the unpunctuated dialogue, as it adds visual density to already thick paragraphs, but I stopped noticing it once I adjusted.
If you enjoyed the setting and beautifully interwoven magical realism of Karen Russell’s The Antidote, this novel will surely sweep you away. It feels destined for major literary award contention.
My thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.
Blog | Twitter | Instagram | Bluesky
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
Thank you NetGalley and Little, Brown and Company for a chance to review this ARC
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Babylon, South Dakota is a multigenerational saga about the Hsiu family, Chinese immigrants who arrive in the windswept plains of South Dakota with little more than a suitcase and a silk bag of chrysanthemum seeds. What grows from those seeds, and from that land, is something singular and strange and deeply moving.
When the US Army Corps of Engineers arrives to claim a parcel of the Hsiu farm for a missile silo, the novel shifts into another register entirely. The magical bleeds into the historical. Animals speak to Mara. Mei reads augury in the ordinary. The chrysanthemums become impervious to drought and herbicide and time itself. Lin never forces an explanation for any of it. The inexplicable is simply part of the texture of the Hsius' lives, the way that empire is, and grief is, and love is.
What elevates this above magical realism as genre exercise is the prose. Lin writes with a precision that makes everyday objects feel charged and invented. Every sentence earns its place. The novel spans generations without losing intimacy, moving through Cold War paranoia and family rupture and quiet acts of survival with equal weight and care.
Babylon, South Dakota is the kind of book that roots itself in you. A meditation on what empire steals, what land holds, and what a family can carry across generations. One of the most extraordinary novels I've read this year.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Babylon, South Dakota is a multigenerational saga about the Hsiu family, Chinese immigrants who arrive in the windswept plains of South Dakota with little more than a suitcase and a silk bag of chrysanthemum seeds. What grows from those seeds, and from that land, is something singular and strange and deeply moving.
When the US Army Corps of Engineers arrives to claim a parcel of the Hsiu farm for a missile silo, the novel shifts into another register entirely. The magical bleeds into the historical. Animals speak to Mara. Mei reads augury in the ordinary. The chrysanthemums become impervious to drought and herbicide and time itself. Lin never forces an explanation for any of it. The inexplicable is simply part of the texture of the Hsius' lives, the way that empire is, and grief is, and love is.
What elevates this above magical realism as genre exercise is the prose. Lin writes with a precision that makes everyday objects feel charged and invented. Every sentence earns its place. The novel spans generations without losing intimacy, moving through Cold War paranoia and family rupture and quiet acts of survival with equal weight and care.
Babylon, South Dakota is the kind of book that roots itself in you. A meditation on what empire steals, what land holds, and what a family can carry across generations. One of the most extraordinary novels I've read this year.
May 20, 2026
Thank you to NetGalley, Little Brown, & Company, and Tom Lin for the chance to read this book in exchange for my honest review.
Literary fiction, Science fiction, immigrant experience as told through generations not without the effects of the American government's machinations.
As I stated right when I finished the book on my Instagram story: What psychosis am I in that I get IT but I can't explain what IT is? Also, Why am I crying?
To be honest, I know why I'm crying. The story was not only moving and emotional, but as a person who's family roots are in South Dakota- Tom Lin captured the beauty and treachery of those lands. The harsh extremes in the natural climate- and the climate brought on by man. And while this story is told of those who arrived to their new country- the way they were received and treated reminded me of the treatment of the people native to those lands. It's all very layered.
I grew up learning about these missile silos in South Dakota and all of the real life questioning after them. How did this effect the ground water? Can they be blamed for illness in the area? I now live my adult life in St. Louis, Missouri. Where the Manhattan Project has wreaked havoc for decades and generations to come. I know this story is Science Fiction- but from growing up and hearing speculation- to being an adult and seeing SOME truths come out-- that makes the fiction part of this story almost contemplative...
Literary fiction, Science fiction, immigrant experience as told through generations not without the effects of the American government's machinations.
As I stated right when I finished the book on my Instagram story: What psychosis am I in that I get IT but I can't explain what IT is? Also, Why am I crying?
To be honest, I know why I'm crying. The story was not only moving and emotional, but as a person who's family roots are in South Dakota- Tom Lin captured the beauty and treachery of those lands. The harsh extremes in the natural climate- and the climate brought on by man. And while this story is told of those who arrived to their new country- the way they were received and treated reminded me of the treatment of the people native to those lands. It's all very layered.
I grew up learning about these missile silos in South Dakota and all of the real life questioning after them. How did this effect the ground water? Can they be blamed for illness in the area? I now live my adult life in St. Louis, Missouri. Where the Manhattan Project has wreaked havoc for decades and generations to come. I know this story is Science Fiction- but from growing up and hearing speculation- to being an adult and seeing SOME truths come out-- that makes the fiction part of this story almost contemplative...
June 1, 2026
Thank you to NetGalley for the eARC - I want to preface that I don't think this is a bad book; it was simply a bad book for me. Lin does write a whole epic set in mid twentieth century rural South Dakota, and I appreciated the aspects of the story that focused on Saul and Mei's settling into the area, the challenges they faced in trying to integrate into a new culture and country so different from the recent Chinese revolution, and the ways the American military in the area interacted with them and Babylon in various ways over the years. The first part of the book offered a sort of mystery in what was going on with the missile silo on Saul and Mei's land, and the strange things that impacted them and their daughter Mara in those early years.
And then so much of those promising aspects were dropped for decades of farm life and the challenges to money and teenage daughters and a burst of Christian values and the continuing of small town life in Mara marrying and continuing the family. The more interesting mysteries offered by the missile silo only crop up briefly in the final quarter, and then a few chapters from the end of the book into a somewhat unsatisfying ending.
Also: not a quotation mark in sight, which was frankly wild for several integral moments and conversations.
Plenty of folks clearly like this book, so it's certainly not bad. Just not my vibe or style.
And then so much of those promising aspects were dropped for decades of farm life and the challenges to money and teenage daughters and a burst of Christian values and the continuing of small town life in Mara marrying and continuing the family. The more interesting mysteries offered by the missile silo only crop up briefly in the final quarter, and then a few chapters from the end of the book into a somewhat unsatisfying ending.
Also: not a quotation mark in sight, which was frankly wild for several integral moments and conversations.
Plenty of folks clearly like this book, so it's certainly not bad. Just not my vibe or style.
June 25, 2026
I picked this up from my LBS because the summary sounded interesting. I absolutely loved this book! One of the best fiction novels I've read in a long time. Great, emotional story and wonderful writing. I will spoiler the rest of my comments - do not read if you don't want to know anything about the story.
If you love a good story with some mystery, I highly recommend this one, especially if you're like me and fascinated by our Universe and quantum mechanics.
If you love a good story with some mystery, I highly recommend this one, especially if you're like me and fascinated by our Universe and quantum mechanics.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 92 reviews