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ROCKER'S READ
SHADOW ROCKERS RECOMMEND BOOKS! This one comes from our newest staff member, Liesl Meador. Thanks, Liesl!
Babel by R.F. Kuang
Novel description:
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?
What does it mean to me?
Babel was the first novel I read from R.F. Kuang, and I have quickly devoured every book she has written since. Along with having an impressive background as a Marshal Scholar, a graduate of Cambridge and Oxford, and currently pursuing a PhD at Yale, Kuang does a brilliant job at highlighting the problems with colonialism and oppression while also engaging you in a story you can barely put down. I read this book towards the end of 2023, and I felt that it provided a point of view that I hadn't been exposed to before at a very relevant time in our current state of the world. Kuang does not shy away from difficult topics. Perhaps one of my favorite quotes from Babel is:
"English did not just borrow words from other languages; it was stuffed to the brim with foreign influences, a Frankenstein vernacular. And Robin found it incredible, how this country, whose citizens prided themselves so much on being better than the rest of the world, could not make it through an afternoon tea without borrowed goods."
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Babel-Necessity-Violence-Translators-Revolution/dp/0063021420/ref=sr_1_1?crid=16PQVCV12UJTV&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.UgO46SnGuWlsKO7NSREz43NKq1szkMSicRYEeOSZ_S4U9LBlZxQhsAj0U_r8zgngaOkLrIrAmg1sLNxSAIasftBX6FSnM4jlwbqt65jLEIgVlwVgEPdHDQztFPjBxGVYZwaRZcRkMGCQkWwwJ31_hnPhqQ96gk6ixagBSoki5d4YzvpXR1i2MVy_Soq15BjO-nBlEJZE5pbS4QfSSK1PywyITEsFOhzUufoJI2JLj04.BcavxXRo3fF5vAutp7ewPyiRN0gJnG3ZNE6SrI2sDgQ&dib_tag=se&keywords=babel+rf+kuang&qid=1746113643&sprefix=babe%2Caps%2C184&sr=8-1
Barnes & Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/babel-r-f-kuang/1140546556?ean=9780063021426
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