Babel

        

Title: Babel: Or the Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators' Revolution

Author: R.F. Kuang

Publisher: Harper Voyager, August 23, 2022

Pages: 557

Genre: Historical Fantasy

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? 

This book was so beautifully written. I'm learning that I love a footnote. And the audio production of this was SO well done. I loved that the footnotes had their own narrator. It helped to distinguish them as completely separate, without detracting too much from the flow of the story. 

In this book, we follow Robin Swift. A young Chinese boy, born in Canton, and then brought to England after his mother dies. He is taught classical languages and trained to become a translation scholar at Babel in Oxford. When he finally arrives in Oxford, he runs into a man, just a little older than he is, who could be his twin. He helps this man and his friends with their heist, and then he finds out that they're members of a secret society that is dedicated to making silver-working more accessible to all. Robin becomes caught up in their web, and his life is forever changed.

While Robin is sneaking around and helping the Hermes Society with their dealings, he is thriving at Oxford. He has 3 best friends in his cohort at Babel. Rami, Victoire, and Lettie help Robin, and each other, get through their studies and social obligations throughout 3 years of study. Rami and Victoire came to Oxford under similar circumstances to Robin. Rami is an Indian man whose family worked in the home of a rich English man. When he showed a talent for languages, the English man invited him to travel with him to England and train to go to Babel. Victoire is a young Haitian woman whose absorption into slavery in France is terrifying. It is only when she arrived at Oxford that she was a free woman again. If you call her experience freedom... And Lettie. Lettie is an English girl, who was only allowed to go to Oxford when her brother died and was unable to carry on the family name. More to get out of her father's hair than anything. 

This book shows you all of the dirty ways that colonialism creeps up on the world. The ways in which the colonizers truly feel they have every right to whatever they want. How even when you have 3 people, from 3 vastly different places telling you to your face that stealing land and wealth from a people just because they're different from you is wrong, you can write it off as a necessary sacrifice for the greater good. How personal slights can lead to tragic consequences. And how a lifetime of loss can warp an innocent mind. 

Ratings

Stars: 5/5