Babel by R.F. Kuang
Summary
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?
Book Setting: Oxford, England
The Oxford Union
Taylor’s
Martyrs Memorial
Hampstead
Radcliffe Library
Covent Garden
Fleet Street
Hatchards
University College
Jericho
4 Magpie Lane
Ede & Ravenscroft
Queen’s Lane Coffee House
Cherwell Boathouse Punts
South Park
Ashmolean Museum
The Sheldonian Theatre
Hollywell Lane
Harrow Road
Merton College Fellows Gardens
Bullingdon Green
Merton Street
The Buttery
Port Medow
Wolvercote
St. Aldate’s
Turf Tavern
Reviews
'Kuang has outdone herself. Babel is brilliant, vicious, sensitive, epic, and intimate; it's both a love letter and a declaration of war. It's a perfect book.'
— Alix E. Harrow, bestselling author of A Mirror Mended
“If you only read one book this year, read this one. Through the incredibly believable alternative HF, Kuang has distilled the truth about imperialism and colonization in our world. Kuang’s depth of knowledge of history and linguistics is breathtaking. This book is a masterpiece in every sense of the word, a true privilege to read.”
— Jesse Sutanto, author of Dial A for Aunties
Babel has earned tremendous praise and deserves all of it. It’s Philip Pullman’s The Golden Compass by way of N.K. Jemisin’s The Fifth Season: inventive and engaging, passionate and precise. Kuang is fiercely disciplined even when she’s playful and experimental … Like the silver bars at its heart—like empires and academic institutions both—Babel derives its power from sustaining a contradiction, from trying to hold in your head both love and hatred for the charming thing that sustains itself by devouring you.”
— New York Times Book Review