In Conversation with Tom Lin

You’re invited to An Evening with Tom Lin, author of Babylon, South Dakota, on Thursday, May 28 at 5:30 at Henry’s Books.

We’ll be in conversation with the author about his genre-bending novel, which has been hailed as “...wonder-full, enchanted and enchanting…the most excited I’ve been about a new book in ages." (Kaveh Akbar, author of Martyr!), and “... a flawless novel that belongs in a category all its own.” (Paige Lewis, author of Canon).

Each $40 ticket entitles the holder to a copy of Babylon, South Dakota. Seating for this special event is limited–reserve your spot today!

About Babylon, South Dakota… 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.

About the author…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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