As his studies progress, Robin finds himself caught between Babel and the shadowy Hermes Society, an organization dedicated to stopping imperial expansion. But knowledge obeys power, and as a Chinese boy raised in Britain, Robin realizes serving Babel means betraying his motherland. Silver working-the art of manifesting the meaning lost in translation using enchanted silver bars-has made the British unparalleled in power, as its knowledge serves the Empire’s quest for colonization.įor Robin, Oxford is a utopia dedicated to the pursuit of knowledge. There, he trains for years in Latin, Ancient Greek, and Chinese, all in preparation for the day he’ll enroll in Oxford University’s prestigious Royal Institute of Translation-also known as Babel.īabel is the world's center for translation and, more importantly, magic. Robin Swift, orphaned by cholera in Canton, is brought to London by the mysterious Professor Lovell. Traduttore, traditore: An act of translation is always an act of betrayal.ġ828. Norrell that grapples with student revolutions, colonial resistance, and the use of language and translation as the dominating tool of the British empire. Kuang comes Babel, a thematic response to The Secret History and a tonal retort to Jonathan Strange & Mr. But when it comes time to actually make a move and put her heart on the line, there’s only one question that matters: What will Bee Königswasser do?įrom award-winning author R. And the possibilities have all her neurons firing. Perhaps it’s her occipital cortex playing tricks on her, but Bee could swear she can see Levi softening into an ally, backing her plays, seconding her ideas…devouring her with those eyes. Now, her equipment is missing, the staff is ignoring her, and Bee finds her floundering career in somewhat of a pickle. But Levi made his feelings toward Bee very clear in grad school-archenemies work best employed in their own galaxies far, far away. And sure, he caught her in his powerfully corded arms like a romance novel hero when she accidentally damseled in distress on her first day in the lab. Sure, Levi is attractive in a tall, dark, and piercing-eyes kind of way. But the mother of modern physics never had to co-lead with Levi Ward. Like an avenging, purple-haired Jedi bringing balance to the mansplained universe, Bee Königswasser lives by a simple code: What would Marie Curie do? If NASA offered her the lead on a neuroengineering project-a literal dream come true after years scraping by on the crumbs of academia-Marie would accept without hesitation. But there’s someone who does know exactly what she did, and they’ll do anything to make her forget-permanently.Ī complex thriller that unfolds at a breakneck speed, Stay Awake will keep you up all night.įrom the New York Times bestselling author of The Love Hypothesis comes a new STEMinist rom-com in which a scientist is forced to work on a project with her nemesis-with explosive results. What did she do last night? And why does she remember nothing from the past two years? Liv finds herself on the run for a crime she doesn’t remember committing. Catching a glimpse of the local news, she’s horrified to see reports of a crime scene where the victim’s blood has been used to scrawl a message across a window, similar to the message that’s inked on her hands. Now, she’s lost and disoriented in a New York City that looks nothing like what she remembers. Two years ago, Liv was thriving as a successful writer for a trendy magazine.

Her hands are covered in scribbled messages, like graffiti on her skin: STAY AWAKE. She reaches for her phone to call for help, only to discover it’s missing. When she’s dropped off at the door of her brownstone, a stranger answers-a stranger who claims to live in her apartment. Liv Reese wakes up in the back of a taxi with no idea where she is or how she got there. Megan Goldin’s Stay Awake is an electrifying novel that proves memory can be deadly.

A murder she doesn’t remember committing.

Illstarred census gets thumbsup