Synopsis

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 programme that guarantees near-instant fluency in any language. Sceptical but intrigued, Anisa enrols — stripped of her belongings and contact with the outside world – and emerges ten days later fluent in German. As Anisa enmeshes herself further within the Centre, seduced by all it’s made possible, she soon realises the true cost of its services.

Review

As someone who wishes she spoke more languages, the concept of this book really piqued my interest – becoming fluent in a language in just a matter of days would be incredible.

Anisa seems to share this dream, desperate to be a translator of great works of fiction., and as someone who once considered becoming an interpreter, I could relate to her ambition, but also to the fact that she wants more from her pretty ordinary life.

I did feel that the time spent with Adam is merely to create a way for Anisa to get to The Centre. Their relationship isn’t particularly interesting and these chapters drag down the book somewhat; I also question how Adam could afford quite so many visits when it’s £20k per language! That said, I was just as keen as Anisa to get to the crux of the story.

And what a story it is.

Even if it’s fairly obvious what the twist is, it’s a wonderful concept; the time at the Centre is well done and some of the relationships are endearing. Naima is an excellent character, especially her attitude towards life. Anisa does not deserve her as a friend and is extremely unlikeable; she’s a privileged, whiny person who is self-centred and quite rude. Her shock at discovering the Centre’s secret is undermined by the fact that she just drifts home afterwards without much concern.

I do feel that the Centre itself plays a relatively small role in the book as a whole, with too much time devoted to Adam and a lot of other time to Anisa’s visit to India (massive conflict of interest here too). I did enjoy the time spent here, but it did not add a lot to the story and I would have liked more about etymology and language, as well as the psychology about the Centre’s methods, and the people whose stories she discovers.

It is a good book – and I read it in one sitting – raising a lot of ethical questions, but it does have several flaws and doesn’t quite live up to expectations. However, I for one would still enrol at The Centre. Make of that what you will…

Thanks to Picador Books for my proof copy. Opinions my own.