The Thousand Crimes of Ming Tsu, Tom Lin
The Thousand Crimes of Ming Tsu, Tom Lin
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The Thousand Crimes of Ming Tsu

Author: Tom Lin

Narrator: Feodor Chin

Unabridged: 9 hr 38 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 06/01/2021

Synopsis

A Chinese American assassin sets out to rescue his kidnapped wife and exact revenge on her abductors in this New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice: a twist on the classic western from "an astonishing new voice" (Jonathan Lethem). Orphaned young, Ming Tsu, the son of Chinese immigrants, is raised by the notorious leader of a California crime syndicate, who trains him to be his deadly enforcer. But when Ming falls in love with Ada, the daughter of a powerful railroad magnate, and the two elope, he seizes the opportunity to escape to a different life. Soon after, in a violent raid, the tycoon's henchmen kidnap Ada and conscript Ming into service for the Central Pacific Railroad. Battered, heartbroken, and yet defiant, Ming partners with a blind clairvoyant known only as the prophet. Together the two set out to rescue his wife and to exact revenge on the men who destroyed Ming, aided by a troupe of magic-show performers, some with supernatural powers, whom they meet on the journey. Ming blazes his way across the West, settling old scores with a single-minded devotion that culminates in an explosive and unexpected finale. Written with the violent ardor of Cormac McCarthy and the otherworldly inventiveness of Ted Chiang, The Thousand Crimes of Ming Tsu is at once a thriller, a romance, and a story of one man's quest for redemption in the face of a distinctly American brutality. "In Tom Lin's novel, the atmosphere of Cormac McCarthy's West, or that of the Coen Brothers' True Grit, gives way to the phantasmagorical shades of Ray Bradbury, Charles Finney's The Circus of Dr. Lao, and Katherine Dunn's Geek Love. Yet The Thousand Crimes of Ming Tsu has a velocity and perspective all its own, and is a fierce new version of the Westward Dream." —Jonathan Lethem, author of Motherless BrooklynWinner of the Carnegie Medal for ExcellenceFinalist for the Young Lions Fiction Award

Reviews

Goodreads review by Barbara on August 06, 2021

3.5 stars: I listened to “The Thousand Crimes of Ming Tsu” narrated by Feodor Chin, written by Tom Lin. While I’m not a big fan of the Action & Adventure and Cowboy genre, the New York Times raved “An astounding debut that reimagines the classic Western through the eyes of a Chinese American assassi......more

Goodreads review by David on June 05, 2023

Ming Tsu is a sharpshooting enforcer who carries a rail spike sharpened to a mirror finish and a list of names he's killing his way through to ultimately reunite with his one true love. In author Tom Lin's hands the story clips along as Ming traverses the West leaving a bloody trail of bodies. Ming......more

Goodreads review by David on November 22, 2023

Really enjoyed this one and was torn between four and five stars. The characters were extremely unique. The main character is engaging and heroic, the writing is a notch above. The most difficult part of writing is Voice and I loved the voice in this novel. The characters really get unique and inter......more

Goodreads review by Lark on November 21, 2021

The dying man writhed in agony and reaching out he grabbed the ringmaster's ankle weakly. The ringmaster jerked his foot away and kicked the man hard in the face, sending him rolling over on his side. He gave his cane a sharp twist and it came apart in his hand, revealing a hidden knife. "A man is ne......more

Goodreads review by Jim on April 02, 2025

It seems I've been reading a lot of Westerns over the last year or so and this is the newest one, published in 2021. It's basically the standard story of a guy going on a mission of vengeance. The difference is that the man is Chinese and more bodies get stacked up than usual. Ming Tsu is an orphan......more

Quotes

“A book out of bounds.... Saves the western by blowing it to bits. Don’t wait for the movie.”—Marlon James, Wall Street Journal

“Lin’s assured debut novel... hums with striking descriptions of an unforgiving landscape.”—New York Times Book Review (Editors' Choice)

“Tom Lin is a sublimely gifted debut novelist... He offers a window onto a buried history [and] exposes the racism that was, is, and will be at the heart of the American experiment... In McCarthy-like sentences, Lin also pays homage to the arduous journey of Ming and his companions and to the landscape that sprawls around them... Lin’s pilgrims meet their fates in startling, wondrous moments... The body count is high, but so is the level of literary skill and topicality... Lin flips the script: his outlaw is a living, breathing rebuke to white racism, an Angel of Death to the worst perpetrators... While Lin probes American obsessions with race, guns, and myth-making, he also imbues his grittiness with stunning lyricism and a larger spiritual aura.”—Oprah Daily

“Impressive… As a kind of redemptive imaginative act, Lin has created a poetic and cinematic story centered on a Chinese American sharpshooter.”—San Francisco Chronicle

“A rollicking gallery of Western archetypes.”—Los Angeles Times (Best Books of Summer 2021)

"A western gothic revenge tale ripe for a Coen brothers adaptation."—Boston Globe

“Part revenge fantasy, part classic bloody tale of the Old West. In this book, things return—people, oceans, violence—but remembering is a choice and the body bears the cost... In this unforgiving landscape, which Lin vividly and meticulously describes in prose whose music is reminiscent of Cormac McCarthy’s, even a rainstorm can take on mythical proportions.”—New York Times Book Review

“Brilliant.”—New York Magazine

“Eminently entertaining… There's a lot to love in this expansive debut novel from Tom Lin. The Thousand Crimes of Ming Tsu is a truly cinematic Western. Its vistas and action sequences are perfectly designed for fans of graphic novels and the big screen alike. Similarly, the body count is crafted for an audience that enjoys adrenaline's pulse in its ears. Lin's wordcraft is deft and painterly, whether he's describing a fight scene or a desert… an important, vivid story, with characters led through the landscape by the demands of its plot… I hope we see more of all these stories from Tom Lin in the future.”—NPR.org

“A thrilling journey that calls to mind beloved Westerns... The Thousand Crimes of Ming Tsu is a smart, modern take on a classic genre that defies expectations and delivers serious entertainment.”—Town & Country

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