Richland Library Main
Cover to Cover Book Group
Tuesday, December 10, 2024 6 p.m. – 7:30 p.m.
Join us for a book group discussion of this month’s title, Babel by R.F. Kuang.
Join us at 6:00 on Tuesday, October 8th for a lively discussion. Please contact Savannah Green or Adele Chase at 803-929-3400 to pick up a book group copy.
Don't have a card? Click here to sign up. If you need assistance downloading this title, please call (803) 799-9084.
From award-winning author R. F. Kuang comes Babel, a historical fantasy epic that grapples with student revolutions, colonial resistance, and the use of language and translation as the dominating tool of the British Empire
Traduttore, traditore: An act of translation is always an act of betrayal.
1828. Robin Swift, orphaned by cholera in Canton, is brought to London by the mysterious Professor Lovell. There, he 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, Robin 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?
Cover to Cover Book Group meets the second Tuesday of every other month from 6:00 - 7:30 p.m.
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