R.F. Kuang's "Babel" (£8) is set in an alternate version of 19th-century London, where Robin, an orphaned Chinese boy, is brought to London by an English professor to study translation at the prestigious (and magical) Royal Institute of Translation. As he grows older, however, Robin learns more about how the Institute and its magic are used to further Britain's imperial and colonial aims. He is torn between loyalty to those who took him in and loyalty to his homeland. At the same time, a shadowy anticolonial institution battles Babel, and a war over silver and opium looms.