Babel, or the Necessity ofViolence: An Arcane History by R.F. Kuang

1828. Robing Swift, orphaned by cholera in Canton, is brought to London by the mysterious Professor Lovell. There, Robin 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. The tower and its students are 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 the arcane craft 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, he 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?

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This book deserves every bit of hype and love that it’s currently getting across social media. It enchanted me, destroyed me, and stitched me back together again. I won’t lie, with all the hype and the size of this book, it was quite overwhelming. But the novel itself had a nice slow pace (which usually I don’t enjoy but in this it absolutely worked) which allowed me to get fully entrenched into this world and storyline and become part of the found family these characters formed. It’s the perfect dark academia read with, not just a school setting (Oxford no less!) but lessons and “uni life” very accurately depicted within the pages. It felt like home. For the first half. Although it does take time for this book to pick up in action, it is so thoroughly enjoyable throughout due to the beautiful writing. I particularly enjoyed the footnotes that included real life facts as well as tidbits to make the world we were reading more realistic. The depictions of colonialism and the deep dive this author took in sharing what it’s like to be looked at as less-than-human were so vivid you can tell that this came from real experiences. I loved that this was written as a history while taking jabs at how history is most often depicted inaccurately by the winning side. There were so many lessons in this book that you walk away from and the characters became so multi-dimensional that it will take a while for me to say goodbye to them and move onto the next book.

We follow Robin for most of this book as he is taken from his home in China after his family dies of disease and is raised in a very restrictive and demanding house in England with a man who treats him as lesser based on his race. We follow him throughout his childhood of lessons on ancient languages as he puts all of his effort into fitting in, doing what his guardian says, and getting into Oxford’s language school. You’re left feeling torn during those first parts of the book. You know that him being ripped form his homeland is wrong, yet you still have a shred of hope that maybe he’ll find happiness with his captor. There are small moments amongst all of the toxicity that make you second guess yourself and then hate yourself for “believing the lie” just as Robin does. It quickly becomes apparent that no matter what Robin does, he will never fully fit in. There were moments of violence in this book that left me feeling completely betrayed as if I were the child lulled into a false sense of security and then beat within an inch of my life. The visceral reaction this author got from me even from the smallest moments of reality bleeding through the lies that were incredible.

“History isn’t a premade tapestry that we’ve got to suffer, a closed world with no exit. We can for it. Make it. we just have to choose to make it.”

As we get into it we get really well into Robin’s head. We find comfort and familiarity and belonging at Oxford. We enjoy the nostalgia of Dark Academia/Found Family for a very good portion of this book, but throughout the facade, there are skips in the record, where we see the disease and greed laying underneath the fantasy we (through Robin’s eyes) have concocted. It was very well-done. I love that this author made it as uncomfortable and blatantly obvious how wrong the British Empire is to do what they do yet we find ourselves along with Robin, denying what stares us in the face so we don’t lose the comfort of the life we’ve built. I think that was an amazing way to not only express the impacts of colonialism on real people, but to reflect a mirror on how easy it can be to become complicit even if your heart is in the right place.

This was a slower paced novel which I loved as it gave me time to fully immerse myself in this world and the character development was phenomenal. Robin goes through so much change from who he is at the start of the book and his friends all learn and grow and change along with him. I loved the dynamic between the group, Letty, Victoire, Ramy and Robin. All four coming from different walks of life but finding similarity and empathy in their not fully belonging to Oxford society. I also really loved the small fissures that are in the group right from the beginning. As much as they love and accept one another, you can see that there are problems that they push down. It make the relationships in this book so realistic and relatable. It added quite a bit of great foreshadowing as well. Some quite obvious like Robin stating how different this group would become and some small and almost unnoticeable until the end.

I am no expert on languages (can literally only speak English), however the representation of language and translation in this was so good. I thoroughly enjoyed the footnotes and comments on the origins of specific words and the explanations of how much can be lost in translation, especially using English as the key moderator. The theme of language and it’s destruction due to colonialism tied in really well with the very real representation of racism and how big of a negative impact that the expansion of the British Empire had on language and culture around the world.

“Betrayal. Translation means doing violence upon the original, it means warping and distorting it for foreign, unintended eyes. So, where does that leave us? How can we conclude except by acknowledging that an act of translation is always an act of betrayal?”

Very well-written novel, honestly flawless in my opinion. I was absolutely shredded by the end of this book but if there’s one book you read this year, let this be the one. 5 stars.