Babel

Babel follows Robin Swift as he goes from his sickbed at his home in Canton to a gentleman's home as his ward all the way to Oxford University to study Translation. But this is not just a normal School of Languages, it is a place where magic happens. RF Kuang sitautes her story in the midst of the Industrial Revolution but it is not the lightspeed inventions that are tipping the scale to benefit the wealthy and white, it is the silver bars imbedded into machinery and coaches and everyday objects to make them work better/harder/longer. These silver bars are etched with matching language pairs created by Translators at Babel, Oxford's foremost language study center, and exactly where Robin has been sent. His cohort consists of Ramy, a Hindi speaking Muslim from Calcutta, Victoire whose language abilities helped her escape her enslaved history in Haiti, and Letty a young English woman with a penchant for European Languages. They all encounter a variety of prejudice and outright racism (the latter not really applying to Letty) throughout their journey. Robin runs across a robbery almost-gone-wrong and learns about the Hermes Soceity, a secret group that is working to bring Trasnaltion and Silver Work to the masses. Robin doesn’t want to get involved too much because they sometimes support violence to get what they want. He has to figure out if his goals or his morals are more important and which is the most defensible, with or without the threat of violence.

It is difficult to stress the beautiful way Kuang weaves in colonialist overtones and undertones throughout this story as Robin and his friends figure out, with the help fo the Hermes Society, the destruction an institute such as Babel can wield in the world if kept in control of the few. They want the world to benefit from their work, not jut the rich and white and powerful. There are characters you hope will prove themselves and fail, and other characters who you wouldn't think to come through but do. I can't go into much details without revealing important plot points because many of them are so inextricably linked to the climax. This is a book that builds and builds til there is not other way out. 

Babel is funny, heartwrenching, hopeful, and poignant to all of us in this post-colonial world we live in. I finished it in about a week and have been on a lighthearted romcom kick since then, so take that how you will. Like The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, I want to read it again but I need some time to process all that it encompasses. Thew world isn't how it should be and we can all do something to change it. Even if it seems hopeless and futile, the fight is worth any risks.