Babel: Or the Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators' Revolution [B1289]

2023 PB. From award-winning author R. F. Kuang comes Babel, an alternative history fantasy that grapples with student revolutions, colonial resistance, and the use of language and translation as the dominating tool of the British empire. Traduttore, traditore: An act of translation is always an act of betrayal.

1828. Robin Swift, orphaned by cholera in Canton, is brought to London by the mysterious Professor Lovell. There, he trains for years in Latin, Ancient Greek, and Chinese, all in preparation for the day he'll enroll in Oxford University's prestigious Royal Institute of Translation-also known as Babel. Babel is the world's center for translation and, more importantly, magic. Silver working-the art of manifesting the meaning lost in translation using enchanted silver bars-has made the British unparalleled in power, as its knowledge serves the Empire's quest for colonization. For Robin, Oxford is a utopia dedicated to the pursuit of knowledge. But knowledge obeys power, and as a Chinese boy raised in Britain, Robin realizes serving Babel means betraying his motherland. As his studies progress, Robin finds himself caught between Babel and the shadowy Hermes Society, an organization dedicated to stopping imperial expansion. When Britain pursues an unjust war with China over silver and opium, Robin must decide . . Can powerful institutions be changed from within, or does revolution always require violence?

From recent Amazon/GoodReads reviews: "Original and compelling. It's not an easy task to review a book that is such a monolith of ideas. I loved the whole vision and the narrative voice - a genuinely vivid and energetic mind telling a truly compelling story. A very intelligent book that deserves reading for its uncompromising attack on the British Empire and its rewriting of history through the eyes of four young men and women trapped in its system of double standards and hypocrisy. Vast in its vision and genuinely moving in the choices its characters make. A real standout book that despite being labeled as a YA novel will appeal to many widely-read adult readers. Very much recommended."; "What a great book - so moving, interesting and poignant. Gutted it wasn't longer (even if already a hefty book), I would have loved to know more about the ending... I can only recommend"; "did this book have flaws? yes. did it take more brainpower than i'm willing to admit? yes. am i still rating it five stars? absolutely. there's something about reading this, as a biracial polyglot, that makes me feel so deeply connected with Robin as a character. i understood all of his motives and thoughts intimately. i have also felt othered at every turn because i am not wholly one thing or another, not fully fluent in any language, even my mother tongue. i cannot bring myself to rate a book that made me feel so deeply any less than perfect. i loved it for all its flaws and all its academic ramblings."