Babel

Author: R.F. Kuang

Genre: Historical Fantasy 

Traits: Magical Realism 

Language: English

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    “She learned revolution is, in fact, always unimaginable. It shatters the world you know. The future is unwritten, brimming with potential. The colonizers have no idea what is coming, and that makes them panic. It terrifies them. 

    Good. It should.”

    Babel is beautifully written, well researched and delivers a powerful story full of emotion - if you're willing to listen.Willing be the key word because at the beginning so much linguistic history is present that can seem a little unlikely to read in a fictional book, but the author’s prose remains as gripping as ever, even as she slowly builds tension and layers on academic teachings. The story in Babel is told almost exclusively from the perspective of Robin Swift. In 1828, Robin Swift lost his last surviving family due to cholera, and he was then brought to London by the mysterious Professor Lovell. Professor Lovell brought Robin to train him in Latin, Ancient Greek, and Chinese—even though Chinese is his first language—in preparation for the day he'll enrol in Oxford University's prestigious Royal Institute of Translation, also known as Babel. “That’s just what translation is, I think. That’s all speaking is. Listening to the other and trying to see past your own biases to glimpse what they’re trying to say. Showing yourself to the world, and hoping someone else understands.”

    Babel honors the magic of translation and linguistics. While many say that words are just sequences of sounds given meaning, language is undeniably a keystone of history and culture. Translation is a highly under appreciated art.

R/W Rating:9.2/10

Goodreads Rating:4.2/5

(as on date of publishing of post)

Reviewed by: Prakriti

Please know that the R/W Ratings as provided in here is limited to the specific reviewer's opinion and doesn't reflect an accumulative briefing of the book. The book's impression may vary from reader to reader, and substantially so in certain cases. For an accumulative briefing, do refer the Goodreads rating as provided herein. 

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