The Centre Ayesha Manazir Siddiqi by Ayesha Manazir Siddiqi instant download after payment.

In this “dazzling” speculative debut, a London-based Pakistani translator furthers her stalled career by attending a mysterious language school that boasts near-instant fluency—but at a secret, sinister cost (Gillian Flynn)

Anisa Ellahi dreams of being a translator of “great works of literature,” but mostly spends her days subtitling Bollywood movies & living off her parents’ generous allowance. Adding to her growing sense of inadequacy, her mediocre white boyfriend, Adam, has successfully leveraged his savant-level aptitude for languages into an enviable career. 

But when Adam learns to speak Urdu practically overnight, Anisa forces him to reveal his secret. Adam begrudgingly tells her about The Centre, an elite, invite-only program that guarantees complete fluency in any language, in just ten days. This sounds, to Anisa, like a step toward the life she’s always wanted. Stripped of her belongings & all contact with the outside world, she enrolls & undergoes The Centre’s strange & rigorous processes. But as Anisa enmeshes herself further within the organization, seduced by all that it’s made possible, she soon realizes the hidden cost of its services.

By turns darkly comic & surreal, & with twists as page-turning as they are shocking, The Centre journeys through Karachi, London, & New Delhi, interrogating the sticky politics of language, translation, & appropriation along the way. Through Anisa’s addictive tale of striving & self-actualization, Ayesha Manazir Siddiqi ultimately asks the reader: What is the real price we pay in our scramble to the center?