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

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

'Literary super-stardom doesn't seem too far out of her reach now'

THE HERALD

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

R.F. Kuang’s book ‘Babel’ was a New York Times bestseller w/c 11-09-2022.

R.F. Kuang's book 'Katabasis' was a No.1 Sunday Times bestseller w/c 2025-09-01.