Babel

by R.F. Kuang

Follow along, feel free to have a look – books are meant to be touched, otherwise they’re useless, so don’t be nervous.

Travel sounds fun until you realize what you really want is to stay at home with a cup of tea and a stack of books by a warm fire.’

He’s got the personality of a wet towel: damp, and he clings.’

Then he blinked, because he’d just registered what this most mundane and extraordinary moment meant – that in the space of several weeks, they had become what he’d never found in Hampstead, what he thought he’d never have again after Canton: a circle of people he loved so fiercely his chest hurt when he thought about them.

‘Survival’s not that difficult, Birdie.’ Ramy’s eyes were very hard. ‘But you’ve got to maintain some dignity while you’re at it.’