Published by Harper Voyager, London, 2022. 1st Printing. Brand new copy.Babel is set in an alternative-reality in which Britain’s global economic and colonial supremacy are fueled by the use of magical silver bars. Their power comes from capturing what is “lost in translation” between words in different languages that have similar, but not identical, meanings. Silver bars inscribed with such “match-pairs” are used in various applications such as increasing industrial and agricultural production, improving the accuracy of bullets, healing injuries, and more. To harness this power, Oxford University created the Royal Institute of Translation, nicknamed “Babel”, where scholars work to find match-pairs. The plot is focused on four new students at the institute, their growing awareness that their academic efforts maintain Britain’s imperialist supremacy, their debate over how to prevent the First Opium War, and the use of violence.

It debuted at the first spot on The New York Times Best Seller list, and won Blackwell’s Books of the Year for Fiction in 2022 and the 2022 Nebula Award for Best Novel.