Ask a Bookseller: ‘Babel’
Carson Crooks of Prince Books in Norfolk, Va., highly recommends R. F. Kuang’s novel “Babel,” which had him alternating between tearing through the story and stopping to investigate the actual historical events it referenced. Set in mid-19th century London, the world of this novel looks much like our history, except that the central form of power comes of translating and transcribing words on silver bars. Power, then, derives from gaining control over as many languages as possible. The story centers on Robin Swift, an orphan born in Canton in Guangzhou, who was taken to London by the…
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