Babel

by R.F. Kuang

Language was always the companion of empire, and as such, together they begin, grow, and flourish. And later, together, they fall.

Words and phrases you think are carved into your bones can disappear in no time.’

A lie was not a lie if it was never uttered; questions that were never asked did not need answers.

‘Whenever the English see me, they try to determine what kind of story they know me from,’ Ramy said. ‘Either I’m a dirty thieving lascar, or I’m a servant in some nabob’s house. And I realized in Yorkshire that it’s easier if they think I’m a Mughal prince.’

there is no homeland. It’s gone.’

children were not stock to be experimented on, judged for their blood, spirited away from their homeland in service of Crown and country.

‘But that’s the great contradiction of colonialism.’ Cathy uttered this like a simple matter of fact. ‘It’s built to destroy that which it prizes most.’

It’s hard to accept what you don’t want to see.’

one day you start prodding at what you’ve suppressed. And it’s a mass of black rot, and it’s endless, horrifying, and you can’t look away.’