Truly fascinating . . . a dialogue-rich drama with comic undertones and a creepy thriller nestled within>

Autorentext

Ayesha Manazir Siddiqi has published essays, reviews, short stories, poetry, monologues, and translations, and has also written for radio and for the stage. She was also contributing editor for the Serial podcast the Trojan Horse Affair. Ayesha is from Karachi and lives in London. The Centre is her debut novel.

Klappentext

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.

Zusammenfassung
A darkly comic, boundary-pushing 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.