**From award-winning author R. F. Kuang comes Babel, a thematic response to The Secret History and timbral response to Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, examining student revolutions, colonial resistance, and the use of language and translation as the dominant instrument of the British Empire.****Traduttore, traditore: The act of translation is always an act of betrayal.**1828. Robin Swift, orphaned by cholera in Canton, ends up in London with the mysterious Professor Lovell. There he spent years studying Latin, Ancient Greek and Chinese in preparation for the day he would attend Oxford University's prestigious Royal Institute of Translation, also known as Babylon. Babylon is the world center of translation and, more importantly, magic. Silverworking - the art of translating meaning lost in translation into enchanted silver ingots - made the British unrivaled in power as their knowledge served...