The Centre Audiobook By Ayesha Manazir Siddiqi cover art

The Centre

A Novel

 Preview

Audible Standard 30-day free trial

Try Standard free
Select 1 audiobook a month from our entire collection of titles.
Yours as long as you’re a member.
Get unlimited access to bingeable podcasts.
Standard auto renews for $8.99 a month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

The Centre

By: Ayesha Manazir Siddiqi
Narrated by: Balvinder Sopal
Try Standard free

$8.99 a month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy for $19.80

Buy for $19.80

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? Literature & Fiction Satire Suspense Thriller & Suspense World Literature Exciting Funny Scary England
All stars
Most relevant
The plot was timely and sci- fi in the way of Babel, etc. but really explored themes of class, morality, sexuality in a brown girl world that was impactful for a white, middle aged reader who grew up with such girls. Really enjoyed and appreciated the authors approach to all themes and a solid, good story!

Unique and provoking

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Gothic. Spooky. Dark Academic that's a little more mature as it focuses on the life of a late 20s early 30s single woman who's at times drifting through her life without really being connected to il Character development as at the center (pun intended) of this b so I'd say this is for readers who enjoy books that really challeng their characters and explore what is hidden in relationships rathe than strictly plot focused.

Dark Academia but for Adults

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
First, the narrator is excellent! Second, if you read this as an audiobook, you must wonder whether you got one of those thumb drives! Food (hehe) for thought...

Reading it as an audiobook...

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Not much storyline. Confusing. 1970s type discussion of feminism. Gross premise. International bent is irrelevant.

Bizarreness

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
There was so much build up to the truth/reason of the whole story, at the end I feel I don’t have any closure. The idea is unique, the performance and author’s story telling are great, I just feel a little cheated by the end.

I’m left a little disappointed

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
See more reviews