Set in contemporary London, with eventful detours to the Indian subcontinental cities of Karachi and Delhi, The Centre by Ayesha Manazir Siddiqi features a 30-something narrator flailing in her career as a translator. Anisa, a Pakistani expat, dreams of doing "real translation" work, yet she is stuck in a job creating subtitles for Bollywood movies. Unfortunately, she's fluent only in English and her native tongue, Urdu. Anisa's boyfriend, Adam, a globe-trotting translator with a thriving career, tells her about an elite, secretive language school called the Centre, where, for a hefty fee, students are guaranteed "native-speaker" fluency in just 10 days. It's odd that the school requires a medical exam, but Anisa doesn't question it, especially when she successfully masters German during her first stay there.
It is here that Siddiqi's novel veers into the horror realm without abandoning the truly fascinating drama at the heart of the story, the intense friendship that flourishes between Anisa and Shiba, the Centre's enigmatic manager. As her career takes off, Anisa's suspicions about the language school's opaque methods--she doesn't understand exactly how she became fluent in German--lead her down a dangerous path of discovery that is as terrifying as it is unanticipated.
The Centre is Siddiqi's first novel, a dialogue-rich drama with comic undertones and a creepy thriller nestled within. Siddiqi, a writer of poetry and short stories, adds fun diversions for readers, including a colorful wedding scene, while inviting readers to discover where the shocking details Anisa learns about the Centre will ultimately lead her and Shiba. --Shahina Piyarali, reviewer