The Centre: A Novel

by Ayesha Manazir Siddiqi, Balvinder Sopal (Narrator)

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 what is success really worth?

Audible Audio

Published August 8, 2025

About the author

Ayesha Manazir Siddiqi is a writer, editor, and translator. Her essays and reviews have appeared in publications including the Independent, CeaseFire Magazine, The Theatre Times, Wasafiri, Media Diversified, and the Express Tribune. Her fiction has been published online and in anthologies by Peepal Tree Press, Oberon books, Influx Press, Tilted Axis Press, and EMC. Her plays and monologues have had rehearsed readings and stagings at venues including the Rich Mix, Theatre 503 and the Tristan Bates theatre in London, and the Impact Hub in Birmingham, and she’s also written for BBC Radio 4. Recently, Ayesha was contributing editor for the Serial/New York Times podcast, The Trojan Horse Affair, and her debut novel The Centre is being published by Picador (UK) and Gillian Flynn Books / Zando Projects (US) in Summer 2023. Ayesha is from Karachi and lives in London.

Reviews

[Kelso]

This wasn’t bad the tone and pace were just all over the place. Like some very interesting points about class, race, and language but then some absolutely random points about men and relationships