Title: Babylon, South Dakota
Author: Tom Lin
Pages: 336
Release: May 26, 2026

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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 NetGalley and the publisher for providing an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.