Babel by R.F. Kuang Book of the Month club hardcover

R.F. Kuang's Babel is an alternate-history dark academia novel set in 19th-century Oxford, where magic, known as silver-working, is powered by capturing the essence of words that are similar but not identical across languages. The story follows Robin Swift, a Chinese orphan brought to England by a professor, who is trained at Oxford's Royal Institute of Translation (Babel) to find these "match-pairs" for the British Empire. Robin becomes involved with the anti-colonialist Hermes Society, which seeks to undermine the empire's power, eventually leading to a revolution to dismantle the silver-working that sustains colonial exploitation. Brand new hardcover, never read or opened!