I Like Big Books and I Cannot Lie

Kuang is the award-winning author of another big and juicy door stopper, The Poppy War (which I very much enjoyed listening to on audiobook, by the way). In Babel, she turns her talents towards the darkness inherent in Western academia. Robin, who was orphaned by cholera, was brought from China to London by a professor and studied Chinese, Ancient Greek, and Latin. His efforts through the years are so that he can enroll in a prestigious Oxford University program called “Babel.” The program’s location, the Babel tower, serve as the world’s translation center, and the reason Britain is able to maintain power. This power comes as a result of the unique magic system of this world, known as silver-working. With silver-working, meanings lost in translation are manifested with enchanted silver bars. Robin eventually realizes how much his own country — and others — suffer because of this magic and Britain’s use of it, and must decide if he wants to serve that power or disrupt it.

In New Delhi, in the wee hours of the morning, five people die in a car accident. The luxury car involved belongs to a rich man, who it turns out wasn’t driving. And the servant who is actually in the car doesn’t know what’s happening. This event kickstarts a shifting and intricately woven narrative that takes place in contemporary India, where wealth, corruption, and violence center around the powerful Wadia family. Characters become connected as they navigate greed, rising through the ranks, and morality in this tome that’s part family saga, part crime thriller.

This historical fiction sprawls over a host of characters — gangsters, CIA agents, journalists, and more — after gunmen try to kill Bob Marley in 1976 Jamaica, wounding others in the process. As the singer seeks refuge in England, readers follow the country in the decades following. Through varied perspectives, James paints a full and complex picture of Jamaica’s complexities, from the ’70s to the much-changed climate of the ’90s.