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Meg's Reviews > The Centre
The Centre
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Sometimes when you finish a book, you're torn between writing a review immediately or sitting on it for a few days... The Centre is a book I'll probably spend a long time reflecting on. Thanks to Jordan for a stellar recommendation.
Genre: speculative fiction
London, present day
Anisa Ellahi is a thirty-something Pakistani woman living in London who subtitles Bollywood movies but primarily lives off her parents’ allowance. She dreams of translating great literature, but doesn’t have the drive or all of the language skills. Then she meets Adam, linguistic savant, who seems to know a dozen languages, but can barely remember the Urdu phrases she’s teaching him. When he goes away on a business trip, then comes back speaking Urdu at native-speaker proficiency, Anisa begs to hear how he’s done it. Adam swears her to secrecy, then tells her about The Centre.
If you’ve followed me for a bit, you’ll know that I’m obsessed with the roots of colonialism and power, and that extends to the dominance of language and translation: whose stories get told and in what language. The Centre hits a sweet spot for me, as it addresses language of the colonizers and colonized, while stretching the limits of the extent to which someone will go to learn another language.
As an intense speculative book bordering on horror, the stakes are high and the emotion is tense. The book isn’t “scary” in a slasher thriller or ghostly sense, but it’s terrifying in the issues it’s addressing. Pair with Babel by RF Kuang for maximum effect (though the vibes of the book are very different they grapple with very similar issues). The book feels deeply elder millennial in a way I found refreshing, as Anisa reaches for greatness amidst her own feelings of mediocrity and comes away with something entirely different than what she expected.
Racism, colonialism, immigration, identity politics, and power dynamics are all wrapped up with Anisa’s pursuit of learning German and Russian. Ayesha Manazir Siddiqi does a marvelous job of addressing those issues from Anisa’s perspective as a late-30-something middle class Pakistani woman.
I truly can’t say more than this without spoilers, but trust me on this, if any of what I’ve mentioned appeals to you, you’ll like this book.
Once you read this, come chat with me and @jordanian.reads because we want to talk more about the ending with people! Thanks to Jordan for recommending this and saying “trust me on it” because I did and I’m glad.
Thank you to @zandoprojects and netgalley for an eARC for review. The Centre is out 7/11/23!
Genre: speculative fiction
London, present day
Anisa Ellahi is a thirty-something Pakistani woman living in London who subtitles Bollywood movies but primarily lives off her parents’ allowance. She dreams of translating great literature, but doesn’t have the drive or all of the language skills. Then she meets Adam, linguistic savant, who seems to know a dozen languages, but can barely remember the Urdu phrases she’s teaching him. When he goes away on a business trip, then comes back speaking Urdu at native-speaker proficiency, Anisa begs to hear how he’s done it. Adam swears her to secrecy, then tells her about The Centre.
If you’ve followed me for a bit, you’ll know that I’m obsessed with the roots of colonialism and power, and that extends to the dominance of language and translation: whose stories get told and in what language. The Centre hits a sweet spot for me, as it addresses language of the colonizers and colonized, while stretching the limits of the extent to which someone will go to learn another language.
As an intense speculative book bordering on horror, the stakes are high and the emotion is tense. The book isn’t “scary” in a slasher thriller or ghostly sense, but it’s terrifying in the issues it’s addressing. Pair with Babel by RF Kuang for maximum effect (though the vibes of the book are very different they grapple with very similar issues). The book feels deeply elder millennial in a way I found refreshing, as Anisa reaches for greatness amidst her own feelings of mediocrity and comes away with something entirely different than what she expected.
Racism, colonialism, immigration, identity politics, and power dynamics are all wrapped up with Anisa’s pursuit of learning German and Russian. Ayesha Manazir Siddiqi does a marvelous job of addressing those issues from Anisa’s perspective as a late-30-something middle class Pakistani woman.
I truly can’t say more than this without spoilers, but trust me on this, if any of what I’ve mentioned appeals to you, you’ll like this book.
Once you read this, come chat with me and @jordanian.reads because we want to talk more about the ending with people! Thanks to Jordan for recommending this and saying “trust me on it” because I did and I’m glad.
Thank you to @zandoprojects and netgalley for an eARC for review. The Centre is out 7/11/23!
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