I have mentioned previously how much I enjoy books about translation and translators, since that was my work for many years. So when I heard that Kuang, who wrote a wonderful Scifi/fantasy series called The Poppy Wars, had released a book about translators I was very intrigued!

This book dove right into the heart of what it means to translate languages from one to the other, along with the cultural and historic abuses that come along with that process. Her use of an alternative reality that hews close to our own, highlights the ways language was used by colonial powers to dominate, subjugate and to retain power. This was a phenomenal book that creates heroes and villains out of translators, while mining the history of student revolutions and colonial resistance to create a one of a kind thriller!

In 1828, in a small room in Canton, a little boy is dying. Everyone else in the room is already dead from the plague of cholera that has swept the city. Suddenly, a white man sweeps into the room, and saves the child. The man’s name is Professor Lovell of the Royal Institute of Translation in Oxford, the boy’s name is Robin and once he is well enough he chooses the name “Swift” as his last name.

Grateful that he was saved, Robin works hard to please Professor Lovell, and eventually is accepted into the Royal Institute of Translation, otherwise known as Babel. Babel is the largest and most prestigious center for translation in the world. It is also the center of Silver Working, a process of using connective words in different languages to create enchanted silver bars that protect against grain spoiling or roads from deteriorating or ships from sinking. Needless to say this ability to do silver work has made possible Great Britain’s quest for power and colonization.

At first Robin is enthralled by Babel. Here he can immerse himself in the quest for knowledge and he finds friends who like him, look different and come from other countries. But when Robin discovers that Britain is planning an unjust war with China over the opium trade, he realizes the inequities that less powerful nations suffer from the actions of Babel. Contacted by a shadowy organization called the Hermes Society, which is fighting against Babel’s collusion with the Empire’s colonial expansion, Robin must now decide whether he can change Babel from within or whether a revolution like this requires tearing everything down..

Brenda’s Rating: *****. (5 Out of 5 Stars)

Recommend this book to: Lauren, Marian, Keith Sharon and Ken

Book Study Worthy? Yes!

Read in ebook format.