Personalize Your Library Experience

When you choose your preferred branches and age groups, the site will automatically filter the content to match your selections.

Select Your Branches

Select Your Age Groups

This information will be saved as a cookie, and cannot be connected to a library login or transferred between computers

icon of stars; highlighting that you can open the select favorite branch overlay Save & Close
Return to All Blog Posts
Back to Top

“The Centre” by Ayesha Manazir Siddiqi

About Blog Post Jan 12, 2024 by SCLSNJ Staff
“The Centre” by Ayesha Manazir Siddiqi Review by by Yvonne Selander, collection development librarian Anisa left Pakistan to attend school in London, stayed, and had dreams of forming a meaningful career as a translator. Yet her work subtitling Bollywood movies into English isn’t what she imagined. Sure, it’s great to work when she wants in her pajamas at home but she dreams of translating great literature. At a translator conference she overhears a fellow attendee take calls and speak to other people in three languages — fluently! — over the course of a break between lectures. Intrigued, she strikes up a conversation and thus begins the relationship between Anisa and Adam. Adam never needs to study his many languages, while she needs to be sure to devote time to reading in Urdu, her native tongue, weekly so she doesn’t lose the skill. How does he do it? Eventually she is let in on the secret: The Centre. An invitation-only, super exclusive, language immersion retreat. You go in not knowing a word of a language and leave less than two weeks later completely fluent. It’s too good to believe. Can it be true? And if it is, how?! As we all know if something seems too good to be true … Readers will really get into Anisa’s head, learning about her struggles, her joys and her confusion, as she examines her life, her career and her morals. We know from the creepy cover of the book that something sinister is happening at The Centre but what? You’ll be questioning what you would do in Anisa’s shoes and wondering how it all will play out. Fans of psychological thrillers with a touch of the horrific that make you ponder many different things will want to sink your teeth into this one.
chat loading...