Babel

Or the Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators’ Revolution

By: R. F. Kuang

Narrated by: Chris Lew Kum Hoi, Billie Fulford-Brown

THE #2 SUNDAY TIMES AND #1 NYT BESTSELLER

‘One for Philip Pullman fans’
THE TIMES

‘This one is an automatic buy’
GLAMOUR

‘Ambitious, sweeping and epic’
EVENING STANDARD

‘Razor-sharp’
DAILY MAIL

‘An ingenious fantasy about empire’
GUARDIAN

Traduttore, traditore: An act of translation is always an act of betrayal.

Oxford, 1836.

The city of dreaming spires.

It is the centre of all knowledge and progress in the world.

And at its centre is Babel, the Royal Institute of Translation. The tower from which all the power of the Empire flows.

Orphaned in Canton and brought to England by a mysterious guardian, Babel seemed like paradise to Robin Swift.

Until it became a prison…

But can a student stand against an empire?

An incendiary new novel from award-winning author R.F. Kuang about the power of language, the violence of colonialism, and the sacrifices of resistance.

'A masterpiece that resonates with power and knowledge. BABEL is a stark picture of the cruelty of empire, a distillation of dark academia, and a riveting blend of fantasy and historical fiction – a monumental achievement’

Samantha Shannon, author of THE PRIORY OF THE ORANGE TREE

Delve into the heart of an alternative UK, where Babel reigns as a top entry among gaslamp fantasy books. It's a great, bestselling read, peppered with the essence of urban exploration and thrilling action, an adventure that will leave you breathless and wanting more. For fans of Rebecca Yarros (Iron Flame), Leigh Bardungo (Six of Crows), Brandon Sanderson (The Way of Kings) and Olivie Blake (The Atlas Six) and Samantha Shannon (The Priory of the Orange Tree).

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2022 R.F. Kuang (P)2022 HarperCollins Publishers Limited

Critic reviews

"Kuang has crafted a masterpiece that resonates with power and knowledge. Babel is a stark picture of the cruelty of empire, a distillation of dark academia, and a riveting blend of fantasy and historical fiction – a monumental achievement, from the footnotes to the final page." (Samantha Shannon, author of Priory of The Orange Tree)

"Ambitious, sweeping and epic." (Evening Standard)

"An ingenious fantasy about empire’." (Guardian)

Wonderful story, strange performance

The story is gripping and won’t let you go until you finish the book!
But keep in mind that naration is not the best one as some words or phrazes are taked over during edition probably. But I got used to it quite quickly and just allowed the story to overwhelm me

An interesting, exciting book

WOW! What an amazing story. It has a unique magic system that is super cool. Read this if you like learning things while being entertained.

Cool concept and world.

I appreciate the difficulty of having a single voice pronounce words natively in so many different languages, but editing individual words in was nonetheless annoying.

Daring, dazzling and dangerous

Beautiful use of the prerogative of an author - create a dazzling, magical word; let the characters dance, fear and love and suddenly, the reader find themselves conflicted sympathising with rebels, or conformists or as beneficiaries of colonialism.

Glorious, well researched, fascinating

Never thought that languages and our ability to verbalise plays such an integral role in our civilizatiom status and power. Our ability to be tolerant and think critically linked to our ancestry and prejudices. Excellant.

multi cultural fantasy

as a person of color with mixed roots this one felt written for me. it opened my eyes to what the existence of people like me says about our world. the magic system on its self can be considered a critique on (at least mine vision) globalism. and I still don't understand how this book (and it's characters) has so much depth without having to be a cliché trilogy (I like trilogies, but it's becoming a the standard way fantasy is written)

Simply brilliant!

Honestly, I’m still trying to process this book. So, this short review is post-listening emotions. Forgive me, I’m still raw.

Kuang masterfully paints a portrait of language, power and revolution in a fictionalized version of Oxford University, that grips the reader from chapter one and leaves their hearts asunder by the close of the epilogue. In this, we set on a journey through Robin’s eyes and close it through those of Victoire’s and in between one is made to care, love, empathize, hate and understand the other dominant voices in this story. This is true storytelling. The kind yearned but rarely given. Kuang tells a story that any marginalized voice can listen to and relate with because she does what so few authors can do: she tells stories relatable to a large audience. An audience that the very classics quoted within, fail to reach. This book is marvelous. This book is intelligent, masterfully written. This book is devastating! I will be purchasing a copy because I need to relive all of this with pencil, ruler and highlighter in hand.

I would love to say that this book had wide appeal, but it may bore those who care not for etymology or infuriate others who fail to see perspectives other than their own. Therefore, I’d recommend this to the reader who is marginalized by things they can’t change. This book, is for us. You and I.

Wonderful combined voices to emphasise the languages

The audible is great because you hear the sounds of the language and I really enjoyed all the footnotes being read in a different voice it was excellent

Slow start but oh was it worth it

I don’t think i would have gotten through half of the book manually but as an audiobook it went swimmingly and all the setup and worldbuilding was worth it in the end. The story really sped up after the halfway point and i was on the edge of my seat for the whole end of it after that!

Everyone needs to read this book

Incredible story, excellent performance. Best read I’ve had in years! Everyone needs to read this story.