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The Centre  By  cover art

The Centre

By: Ayesha Manazir Siddiqi
Narrated by: Balvinder Sopal
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Publisher's summary

Welcome to The Centre. You'll never be the same . . .

Anisa Ellahi spends her days writing subtitles for Bollywood films in her London flat, all the while longing to be a translator of ‘great works of literature’. Her boyfriend Adam’s extraordinary aptitude for languages only makes her feel worse, but when Adam learns to speak Urdu practically overnight, Anisa forces him to reveal his secret.

Adam tells Anisa about the Centre, an elite, invite-only programme that guarantees total fluency in any language in just ten days. Sceptical but intrigued, Anisa enrols. Stripped of her belongings and contact with the outside world, she undergoes the Centre’s strange and rigorous processes. But as she enmeshes herself further within the organization, seduced by all that it’s made possible, she soon realizes the disturbing, hidden cost of its services.

By turns dark, funny and surreal, The Centre takes the reader on a journey through Karachi, London and New Delhi, interrogating the sticky politics of language, translation and appropriation with biting specificity, and ultimately asking: what price would you be willing to pay for success?

A remarkable debut from Ayesha Manazir Siddiqi, announcing the arrival of an extraordinary new talent.

©2023 Ayesha Manazir Siddiqi (P)2023 Macmillan Publishers International Limited

Critic reviews

An absolutely stunning and unique novel . . . A book that is not only thrilling but deeply thought provoking, a combination that is truly rare (Gillian Flynn, author of Gone Girl)
Creepy, provocative and wildly entertaining . . . I was gripped (Emma Stonex, author of The Lamplighters)
The Centre is a banger! . . . A book that feels both cheery and terrifying, The Centre draws you in with a gentle hand until it throws the mallet down in the last thirty pages. A terrific meditation on language, diaspora, alienation, and culture, it will stay with you long after you read (Chelsea G Summers, author of A Certain Hunger)

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Really good book, the story is beyond interesting

sooo good! the theme really got to me. what's more interesting than language? nothing!!

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