Robin Swift is saved from death by cholera in Canton, China by a white man, who turns out to be his father. Saving Robin isn’t an act of generosity – the white man would never acknowledge Robin as a son – it as act that places Robin in the white man’s debt. It turns out that Robin’s father is a professor at the Institute of Translation at Oxford in Britain. Professor Lovell gives Robin a choice: come back to London and become a translator or be turned out as an orphan on the cholera stricken streets of Canton. Robin, a child, has no choice. He joins the professor back in London where six years of lessons in Latin and ancient Greek begin. Robin is afforded a luxury he couldn’t have imagined in Canton by a man for whom is simply a tool. At the end of his tutelage, he enrolls in Oxford. Specifically, Robin becomes a student of the Institute for Translation. He meets the cohort with whom he’ll be learning. There’s Ramy, Victoire, and Letty. Ramy is an Indian muslim, and Victoire is from Haiti. They’re the first people of color that Robin’s encountered in England. Letty is British born and bred, but she lacks the outright racism that the others find on British shores and in the very town of Oxford herself. If Letty were alive today, she’d consider herself ‘woke,’ which means for her racism is a personal not systemic reality. One she can’t understand and maybe won’t. The four become tight, the bestest of buds. They learn that not only will they be aiding the empire as translators, they’ll be magicians as well. Potentially, they’ll scribe silver bars, which creates magical effects based on the words and translations scribed into the metal. Silver magic is the most lucrative part of Oxford. It occupies the highest floor of the tower that houses the Institute of Translation. The tower, known as Babel, contains the knowledge of language, of magic, and of diplomacy. Robin and his cohort will study Latin, their birth language (except for Hetty who will study French), and a secondary language, in addition to the theory of translation. To remain at Babel, the cohort must study as if their lives depend upon it. For Robin, Ramy, and Victoire, it might. Failing could lead to banishment. Graduating could mean entrance into the highest tiers of British society. Well, not white society, but still up there. For ‘foreigners.’ One night, while walking alone, Robin sees a group of people running from the tower. One drops a bar of silver, and when Robin goes to pick it up, he finds himself staring into the eyes of a brother he didn’t know he had, a brother with ties to a subversive group whose goal is to counteract the harm that Babel perpetrates upon the world. This chance meeting awakens Robin to how intricately involved Babel is in the exploitation of other kids and of other nations. Babel may very well be the heart of the British Empire’s economy. Will Robin perpetuate Babel’s harms? Or will he follow in the footsteps of a brother he didn’t even know he had?

Babel is a third person novel with a couple of first person interludes. Also, footnotes pepper the narrative. The pacing is uneven; I read the second 50% of the book in less than half the time I read the first portion. The first half focuses on the intellectual journey that Robin is on, and the prose aims mostly to stay in the realm of the mind. It’s slow, interesting, and shows how capitalism can entrap anyone into a comfort based on the suffering of others. The second half deals with the messy emotional side of Robin, and it’s wonderful. It’s fast-paced without losing the anger that fuels the first half of the narrative. The second half is brutal and has a high ‘attrition’ rate. Put together, the two halves make a moving, eloquent tale about resistance, its costs, and trying to be seen as fully human.