Babel
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- $7.99
Publisher Description
From award-winning author R. F. Kuang comes Babel, a thematic response to The Secret History and a tonal retort to Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell 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?
Supplemental enhancement PDF accompanies the audiobook.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
We were awestruck by this stunning historical fantasy set in Victorian England. Young Robin Swift has such an innate gift for language that he’s being groomed by the British Crown to become a translator—and the stakes are high, as the meanings of words create a magical power that can be wielded to run a worldwide empire. But Robin soon discovers an underground network of linguists trying to undo the damage this magic has wrought. Author R. F. Kuang weaves fantasy and history together into an intricate story of love, loss, friendship, and family, all while exploring the complexities of language, culture, and colonialism. Narrator Chris Lew Kum Hoi brilliantly portrays Robin, while Billie Fulford-Brown chimes in to delightfully narrate the book’s many asides explaining linguistics and history. Engaging and poignant, Babel uses brilliant fantasy world-building to grapple with real events.