The Centre: A Novel

Written by Ayesha Manazir Siddiqi

Narrated by Balvinder Sopal

A darkly comic, speculative debut following an adrift Pakistani translator in London who attends a mysterious language school which boasts complete fluency in just ten days, but at a secret, sinister cost. Anisa Ellahi dreams of being a translator of “great works of literature,” but instead mostly spends her days subtitling Bollywood movies, living off her parents’ generous allowance, and discussing the “underside of life” with her best friend, Naima. Anisa’s mediocre white boyfriend, Adam, only adds to her growing sense of inadequacy with his savant-level aptitude for languages, successfully leveraging his expansive knowledge into an enviable career. But when Adam learns to speak Urdu with native fluency practically overnight, Anisa forces him to reveal his secret. Adam begrudgingly tells Anisa about The Centre, an elite, invite-only program that guarantees near-instant fluency in any language. Skeptical but intrigued, Anisa enrolls—stripped of her belongings, contact with the outside world, and bodily autonomy—and emerges ten days later fluent in German. As Anisa enmeshes herself further within The Centre, seduced by all that it’s made possible, she soon realizes the true cost of its services. By turns dark, funny, and surreal, and with twists page-turning and shocking, 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 is success really worth?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Zando
• Release date: Jul 11, 2023
• ISBN: 9781666634488

Ayesha Manazir Siddiqi

Ayesha Manazir Siddiqi has written plays, essays, book reviews and short stories. Her work has appeared in anthologies publications, and her plays have been staged widely. Ayesha also works as an editor and occasional translator. She was a contributing editor for The Trojan Horse Affair, a podcast by The New York Times. Ayesha is from Karachi and lives in London. The Centre is her debut novel.

Reviews for The Centre

[Leah Barton Tew · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Considering the author’s background and experience, this book should have been so much better. There were too many scenes/characters/discussions that added nothing to the plot other than to serve as a vehicle for the author to promote her own thoughts about sexism/racism/gender roles/language/sex, etc. Not that there isn’t a time and place to discuss these things - and these things should be discussed (with an emphasis on discourse, not monologue) - but in this book the set ups felt contrived, as though the author was really just trying to push an agenda rather than tell a story. And it only got worse as the book went on, to the point that the plot seemed to take a back seat to making a point, often in so heavy handed of a manner that it was hard to take any of it seriously.

I started out liking this book, but in the end it was entirely too thin on plot development and overstuffed on agenda for me to rate it any higher than two stars.

[Charles Jones · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This novel was just all over the place. The summary painted a picture of a mystery and search for the truth regarding a mysterious language-learning institute (The Centre), but the novel was more of a story about a woman learning who she wants to truly be, navigating relationships with both friends and lovers, a study about racism and classism, and a very little bit about uncovering the secrets of the Centre. The prose was not bad at all, and the author did paint a nice picture with her words, but some portions of the story were just so long-winded that I feel like the story got off track a lot. There was no clear resolution to the story either, but the author didn't leave the reader with enough information to really "predict" was happened next either, which was frustrating. You could make the assumption that the way the story ended points to Anisa becoming a full part of the Centre, but I don't even think that was the case.

This is a situation where a book was not what I was expecting in a bad way as I feel that the book overall was kind of a dud.

[alisa hartley · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Narrator was AMAZING and kept me interested. Story was very well written. However, I found the 'big reveal' to be a bit anticlimactic. Left me a bit unsatisfied.

[Amy McDougal · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I thought it was okay.
I do not usually read horror...

[Noria Ebulu · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Deliciously creepy. ALL puns intended ??.

But for real though. This was a blast to read. The language was evocative. The story gripping. I thought the twist was going to go one way and then it went somewhere totally different but was still satisfying.

The ending was open in a way that your imagination can fill in the gaps of the possibilities of what would happen. And since this is a story about possibilities of what the mind can imagine… it is quite an apt way to end the story

[Hazel Belasco · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Loved this book! I don’t generally read something I’ve listened to but this is a novel I will return to the page for.

[Yasemin Kasim Luebke · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I loved it. I like how it took its time. I loved the main character’s narration. I appreciated the mystery and I found myself asking if I would do what she did to learn a language!

[Rosie John-Baptiste · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

It took until the sixth hour of the book to get to the point of the story. Until then, it was a lengthy, deep analysis of each character. I enjoyed learning about the boyfriend, the best friend and even the main character. But, not for the entirety of the book. I kept on waiting for something to happen and for the story to take off. It didn’t until three quarters in. Then, I felt an enormous sense of disappointment. The motives behind the language school’s practices could have been further explored as this was what the book was about. I wouldn’t consider this took to be the best investment of 8 hours of my time. Sadly, I wouldn’t recommend it.

[Lisa Paull · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This book was outstanding. The ONLY bit I did not like was the ending. It felt awkward and jarring.