I was provided an ARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Firstly, I must confess, I was actually slightly disapointed to recieve the audiobook and not the eBook of Babel to begin with: I sometimes find longer audiobooks a little difficult to get through, for one reason or another. In retrospect, I'm actually extremely grateful to have listened to it. Firstly, it's wonderful to hear how words from different languages are properly pronounced, particularly the tones in Chinese. Chris Lew Kum Hoi also has some stunningly emotional delivery, and truly acts each role. You can hear shades of one character's voice in another as they echo each other, or their influence on one another shines through: it's absolutely fantastic, with some beautiful accent work to top it all off. If you are dithering on whether to try the audiobook, I would strongly encourage you to give it a listen, even if you've already read the text.

With that out of the way... Babel. I find myself at a loss for words: it's been a sensation, and in my opinion, rightly so. I've read some truly fantastic books this year, and this book is certainly vying for first place. A lot has already been said about it, with regard to the representation it provides and the underexplored themes it faces fiercely and unflinchingly- all true. To lend my voice to the "babble" of positivity, I simply loved every aspect of it, from the rich alternate history setting, to the clever, creative magic system, to the poignant and very human characters, to the complex explorations of colonialism, culture, legacy, belonging, passing, racism, agency... I could go on and on. It also functions as an incredibly succesful bildungsroman- perhaps my favourite that I've stumbled onto, across genres. This is the kind of absorbing fiction that breathes such incredible life into the characters, you catch yourself obsessing over the storyline as if it's real, perhaps because it is so honest. Simulatenously, it's exquisitely wrought and deeply though provoking: Kuang has pulled off the magic trick of a story that feels so natural you can't see the artifice, but so beautiful you know it must be there, invoking some kind of literary teleological paradox.

If I like you, you're probably getting this book for Christmas. I am confident Babel has cemented itself as a fantasy classic that will be lauded for years to come, and if it doesn't win approxamitely a million awards, I'll be personally stung. If you read one book published this year, make it this one.