Finding Magic in What Lasts with Tom Lin

IN BABYLON, SOUTH DAKOTA, Saul and Mei Hsiu are Chinese immigrants trying to make a life for their family on a South Dakota homestead they’ve inherited. The seasons change, and the family grows older in a place where time is felt in the weather and in the land. But the Hsius have not moved to just any piece of land. Part of their property is taken over by the U.S. government, and a nuclear missile silo is built beneath it. Above ground, daily life on the homestead continues. Underground, something secret is keeping another kind of time. 

“Ultimately, it’s a book about death, but also about what it means to spend time with one another, to mark the hour, and to know that we’re all kind of getting old at the same time.” —Tom Lin 

HOW NATURE KEEPS TIME became clearest to Tom in the difference between the city and the homestead. He grew up in New York City, where weather is moved through quickly, from a subway platform to an office lobby, to a heated apartment. On a farm, there isn’t the same degree of separation. Weather changes what the day can be. Rain can cause delays, heat can exhaust the body. “Nature can keep time,” Tom says. The year becomes physical: visible in the crops, the air, and felt in the different modes of labor required by each season.

“Everything feels so permeable to nature and to time.” —Tom Lin

See the Full Interview on Substack.