Babylon, South Dakota: A Novel

by Tom Lin

TIME Magazine's Most Anticipated Books of the Year | Town & Country's Best Books of Spring 2026

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.

Genres: Fiction, Historical Fiction, Fantasy, Magical Realism, Science Fiction, Historical, Audiobook

333 pages, Kindle Edition

First published May 26, 2026

About the author

Tom 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.

Reviews

[Barbara]

Hailing from South Dakota, I was immediately drawn to Tom Lin's BABYLON, SOUTH DAKOTA. I was also eager to read it because I thoroughly enjoyed his previous novel, THE THOUSAND CRIMES OF MING TSU. Lin is a gifted stylist whose prose is both lush and precise, and he has a remarkable ability to illuminate the American experience through the eyes of Asian immigrants. This time, he transports readers to the fictional town of Babylon in western South Dakota.

Saul Keng Hsiu and his wife, Mei Lee, inherit a 160-acre homestead on the South Dakota prairie. They arrive from China carrying more than their hopes for a new life—Mei secretly brings hidden gold, while Saul carries a treasured bag of chrysanthemum seeds. Their quiet existence is upended when the U.S. government claims a parcel in the middle of their property through eminent domain. From that moment, Lin boldly shifts the novel into the realms of speculative fiction, science fiction, and fantasy.

As with his previous novel, what captivated me most was Lin's extraordinary writing. His sentences are rich with insight and beauty. Two passages that especially resonated with me were:

"There must be something dwelling within and yet beyond ourselves; something which encloses us and makes profound the banalities of our living."
"Like men drowning, we pull ourselves hand over hand out of the churn of oblivion, and our lives take shape in the wake."

Unlike THE THOUSAND CRIMES OF MING TSU, this novel is less brutal and more imaginative. It fully embraces the fantastic while remaining surprisingly accessible, even for readers who don't usually gravitate toward fantasy or science fiction. Beneath its inventive premise lies an immigrant story, a meditation on government power and private land, and, most importantly, a thoughtful exploration of marriage, family, identity, and the search for belonging.

Tom Lin continues to prove himself to be one of the most original voices writing historical fiction today—one who isn't afraid to blend genres in unexpected and rewarding ways.

[Jensen McCorkel]

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.

[Gyalten Lekden]

Really beautiful prose couples with an expansive, gentle narrative style to make this a lyrical, contemplative reading experience. The characters are lovingly detailed and seeing how they care for each other and grow around each other is engrossing. This is marketed as magical realism though that feels too determinative to me; instead, it feels like it embraces a reality beyond the everyday. We follow displacement and rupture across multiple generations as they try to determine just what it means to put down roots, and then how to tend to what grows. The language and prose really do feel immersive and incredibly well-crafted, and that feeling complements the depth of characters. There is no real plot to speak of, aligning it with other similar literary fiction in that it unfolds and explores something small without interest in spectacle. It isn’t slow moving, per se, with comfortable jumps of years as the story progresses, but it moves apace with the garden it has sown, with the land and the seasons and the recognition that we are the sum of all those whom we have loved and cared for, and that is not something to be rushed.

I would have liked a little more tension in the story. I deeply appreciate the way they assess whatever happens to them and find a way to work through it if not with it, but it feels like there were very few obstacles, relatively speaking. There are occasional areas of friction but nothing that really required them to change their plans, their ways of doing things, to really ever consider anything outside of themselves. I don’t need heartbreak and misery but a few actual roadblocks instead of speedbumps would have made the story a little bit more sticky. As it is, there are all these minor fantastical elements, introduced as part of their everyday realities, but they come in, float on the breeze a bit, and then are off at chapter’s close. The characters’ nonchalance with the uncommon occurrences works really well, but they don’t feel like there is anything connecting these occurrences to each other or to the characters or the world, other than in the thinnest of ways. They float in as almost little more than an interesting quirk and then leave a pleasant smell lingering in their wakes without giving the reader a lot to grab onto. It feels like a few more obstacles and a little more acknowledgment of the uncommon for what it is would have made it easier to invest in this as a story instead of an elaborate character study.

I enjoyed the reading experience a good deal, for the language and the affection alone. There is a simultaneous searching and a settling, a willingness to put yourself out there because you know you have something anchoring you back home. The Hsiu family may be strangers in a strange land, but this story is more invested in the world they create for themselves than it is anything else. Family, obligation, relationship, dedication, love, and finding personal joy in the simple honesty of those you care about all serve as the foundations of this story. It is a heartfelt, contemplative, and lyrical character study, and in so doing shows the reader what it means to be a family.

(Rounded from 3.5)

[Marin]

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.

[John Caleb Grenn]

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.

[Erin]

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.

[Mark Plott]

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.

[Didi]

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

[Amber]

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.

[Faye]

Magical realism done right. I could live in Tom Lin's beautiful prose forever. Maybe there's a world out there where I do.

[Tyler Atwood]

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.

[Luke]

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.

[Geonn Cannon]

See, this is what can happen when you just skim a book's summary. "Story about immigrants trying to start a flower farm in South Dakota, it's different, could be fun." If only I'd known HOW different, I might've read it sooner. It WAS what I expected from that brief glance at the plot, but it also grew into something crazier than I could've expected. I really enjoyed this one a lot.

[Amelia]

Okay I'm actually a bit stunned with this one. GORGEOUS and weird and elusive and dreamlike and so so vivid.

It was really enjoyable going in blind, but this is a saga about a Chinese couple immigrating to South Dakota and what ensues when the US military builds a silo in their plot of land. Three generations, connection to nature, sci fi, magical realism, beautiful prose (had to look up many words).

Highly recommend

[Jessica]

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

[Monica McCallin]

3.7

[T]

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.

[Paige]

liked the premise, wish it moved a little bit quicker. Prose was very poetic, but not sure it was for me :)

[Meg Pearson]

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.

[Maureen]

What an odd and fascinating story! Definitely rocking the magical realism. But so many themes to grab a reader: filial piety, government overreach, desire for immortality, the immigrant experience.

A Chinese couple fled Cultural Revolution China and mysteriously came into a plat of farmland in South Dakota. Soon after they settle in, government agents show up and eminently domain purchase a piece of their land and build a missile silo there. But it’s more than a missile silo: there is a force field emanating from it that literally lights up the skies.

The wife, Mei, can sometimes see into the future. The husband, who has taken the name Saul, cultivates chrysanthemums from seeds that he brought over from China. But their hybridization is strange, to say the least. The flowers can be aphrodisiacs, so are very popular at their farm stand. The flowers are drought-resistant to an extreme degree, soon crowding out all other vegetation. And might those flowers be a source of gold dust when burned?!? The daughter Mara can communicate with animals when she is a child, but grows out of this talent. And there is a faithful three-legged dog.

Eventually, after a tragedy, the silo is decommissioned, but eeriness continues around this buried cement tube.
As the story progresses there is a surprising magic woven into the story of this American immigrant family. You can find rampant symbolism if you look for it. This book is a different read, but a good one.

[Debra Shaughnessy]

This is a blend of historical fiction, magical realism, and speculative fiction.
The story follows Saul and Mei, a Chinese couple who immigrate to South Dakota to claim a 160-acre farm they’ve inherited. As they build a life raising chrysanthemums, livestock, and their daughter, the U.S. government purchases part of their land to construct a secret missile silo. Soon, strange things begin to happen: their daughter can communicate with animals, Mei develops mysterious abilities, and the farm itself seems touched by something beyond explanation. As the family uncovers the truth behind the military project, they must grapple with the effects it has on their lives across generations.
It’s less action-packed and more reflective, focusing on family, identity, love, sacrifice, and the lasting consequences of power and war.

[Susan Dunn]

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.

[Star Gater]

Thank you Little Brown and Company for allowing me to read and review Babylon, South Dakota on NetGalley.

Published: 05/26/26

Stars: 2. DNF

I didn't connect with the story. I failed to see any purpose for the book. In.a state of boredom I chose to DNF Babylon, South Dakota. I hope you have a better experience.

[Robin Dickert]

'In the near future, the boy said, the government may need a small part of your land for national security purposes, but not all land is good land, and we do not yet know if your land is good land.'

Never-ending chrysanthemums in a story that feels removed from time and place. This is an absorbing saga, with surprising punches of the fantastical, that follows an immigrant family and what happens after the government builds a missile silo in their field. The writing is beautiful, the magical realism gentle, and the story is rich and remarkable. I found myself rereading sentences and passages not because I was distracted, but because it's that good. This book is refeshingly original and vivid, with weird scenes marked indelibly in my mind.

'There’s something going on out there, she said, her voice full of an alien grief. The birds told me so.'

[Theresa]

3.75 not sure I understood 100%. Well written, interesting, literary.

[Myra Walsh]

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.

[Jean Lobrot]

Tranquility through density! The way this story is told initially makes the magical and sci-fi elements really sneak up on you. Also, the ending is so unexpectedly sad and beautiful.

Lin’s voice is so wonderfully meandering. Written with a clear regard for the 20th century canon yet still distinctly 21st century, I definitely had to read it more carefully at times, for fear of missing some of the subtleties in his prose. This is a book that manages to balance the contradictions and difficulties/romantic elements of growing up in isolation with the cruel realities of empire.

All that said, the wordiness can get a little annoying, and as a result, this falls just short of what I’d consider to be a Great book.

[Brian K.]

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.

[Nancy 6+]

Remarkable, stunning, and magical. Fantastic authorship.

"His mind began to drift with the snow and the earth and the huge sound of the sky."

Having been to SD, I know how big the sky is there.

Additional bonus - The Beijing born author currently resides in Iowa City and teaches English and creative writing at the world-renowned University of Iowa, my own alma mater.

[Sharon Felzer]

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.