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My BOTM Pick for December
Babel: Or, The Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators' Revolution — Hard Cover Retail Value $27.99
Book Summary from Amazon:
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?
About the Book
Phew. Where to start on this one. First off, you should know that this book is heavy. It's not an easy breezy book that you will be able to finish in one or two sittings. It's going to take you some time. And to be fair to Babel, it absolutely should. It is a phenomenally written novel that blurs the lines between reality and fiction so effortlessly that you almost find yourself forgetting that it is an alternate history book. The author, R.F. Kuang, weaves true historical facts into completely made-up story lines and even rewrites actual occurring events onto completely different timelines. Kuang does acknowledge this in the very beginning of the book with an author's note, and calls out readers who she knew would pick-a-part her book for historical irregularities and geographical disparities from the real Oxford...which made me both chuckle and really like her.
But what is Babel all about? So, so much. On the surface, Babel is about a group of four unlikely students who make their way into an 1830's Oxford University class. They are admitted into the Royal Insititute for Translation due to their uncanny ability to pick up foreign languages despite two of them being females and the other two being young men from India and China. This was the only college within the university that would have ever taken non-white and female students. Unfortunately for them, they still have quite a difficult time assimilating into the university as racism, colonialism, and sexism (and pretty much every other 'ism') run rampant throughout the university. This becomes important later in the book as three of the four were brought to England through "guardians" and actually spent a good portion of their youth in their home countries.
While studying at Oxford, they would spend the majority of their time at Babel. The tower that pretty much runs the world. Somewhere along the line, it was discovered that when you translate a word from one language to another, something gets lost within the translation. The job of students, professors, and workers within Babel is to find these match-pairs; words that don't translate perfectly and leave something behind. When these two words get written onto silver bars and then spoken by a fluent speaker of both languages, the bars manifest that "something left behind" into actual being. The entirety of England eventually runs on silver bars. However, there is an extremely dark side to this "magic" and our protagonist, Robin Swift (a name he chose at random before leaving his hometown of Canton), becomes acutely aware of these dark underlying reasons behind Babel about half-way through the book. Although, it is not until much closer to the end that he actually decides to act on it through the Hermes Society.
One of the recurring themes I noticed throughout the entirety of Babel is how fast change happens. The author will spend entire chapters describing a single day at the school and the students' study habits, only to then drop a bombshell turn of events out in a single sentence without any warning. I'm not entirely sure I loved how she did this, but I can respect that this is actually very much how real life works. One day everything is smooth sailing and you know what is in front of you, and the next everything has changed and it's not at all what you expected.
The book dives deep into colonialism and racism, but in a way that ebbs and flows with the story. I found myself putting the book down at multiple parts and comparing it to today's world. The author also does an amazing job at making the characters "real." The emotions they feel and the discussions they have in certain situations felt eerily real to me (at least the ones I could relate to) and we learn towards the end about each of the four students' past lives and why they made the choices they did throughout the book. I really enjoyed how the author did this as it felt like that missing puzzle piece finally being put into place right when you were questioning whether or not it was lost.
Verdict
Overall, I loved the book. It's big though, and I don't just mean heavy. It's 542 pages with lots of side notes and will take some time to get through. If you have that time though and are ready for a wild ride down an alternate universe, then definitely go for it! I really don't think you will be disappointed. There is so much more I would love to say about this book, but I don't want to give too much more away. However, if you've read it already...I'd love to chat about it in the comments!
Value - Was This Box Worth It?
Yes! This book was amazing and not something I would have probably chosen when walking into a bookstore. But having a handful of great books to choose from, makes this a no brainer box for me. BOTM Club books range from $12.50-$16.99 depending on your chosen subscription.
The Cost: $9.99 + free shipping
Value Breakdown: This box costs $9.99, but the book I chose retails for $29, which was a discount of about $19 for me. (Remember...this is first month only).
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To Wrap Up:
Can you still get this book if you sign up today? Yes! But you will need to order it as an add-on. This book came late due to a large amount of BOTM subscribers requesting it, so it won't be available for your pick by the time this review comes out.
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