bookshelf

The Poet Empress

Shen Tao · 2026

Yumi and the Nightmare Painter A Cosmere Novel

Brandon Sanderson · 2023

Dark Heir

C. S. Pacat · 2023

Dark Rise (Dark Rise, 1)

C. S. Pacat · 2022

East of Eden (Penguin Twentieth Century Classics)

John Steinbeck · 1952

The Night Circus

Erin Morgenstern • 2011

Finale A Caraval Novel

Stephanie Garber • 2020

The Dragons Promise

Elizabeth Lim · 2024

Her Radiant Curse

Elizabeth Lim · 2023

House of Open Wounds

Adrian Tchaikovsky · 2023

The Night Ends with Fire

K. X. Song · 2024

The Knight and the Moth

Rachel Gillig · 2025

The Jasad Heir

Sara Hashem · 2023

Babel

R. F. Kuang · 2022

Instant #1 New York Times Bestseller from the author of The Poppy War “Absolutely phenomenal. One of the most brilliant, razor-sharp books I've had the pleasure of reading that isn't just an alternative fantastical history, but an interrogative one; one that grabs colonial history and the Industrial Revolution, turns it over, and shakes it out.” -- Shannon Chakraborty, bestselling author of The City of Brass From award-winning author R. F. Kuang comes Babel, a thematic response to The Secret History and a tonal retort to Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell 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. Babel is 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 its knowledge 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?