Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for my free eARC in exchange for a review!

I really enjoyed this twisty literary thriller, especially as it was translation focused! I thought it was a super unique concept for a novel, and I always felt excited for my reading time when I was immersed in this one! Although I don’t know what it is with more thrillery books, but I do tend to feel a bit deflated at the end… even if I like the ending, as I did here!

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Anisa is a Pakistani freelance translator who  dreams of literary translation, but is feeling somewhat adrift and unfulfilled with her work translating subtitles. Her feelings are only exacerbated by her white boyfriend’s seeming genius at picking up new languages, and when he rocks up to meet her family having learned Urdu basically overnight, Anisa forces him to share his secret.

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As well as the great atmosphere built in this novel, it makes some excellent points about double standards in terms of whiteness and language learning and racism in the publishing industry. Anisa’s boyfriend Adam is white and speaks multiple languages, inspiring awe in almost everyone he meets. But if a person of colour spoke four languages but not English? They’d only be met with disdain by white westerners for not bothering to learn English. Anisa also experiences publishing’s racism. After she successfully publishes a translation of an obscure German novel, her previously rejected Urdu translations become suddenly publishable, and now she has to grapple with becoming a cog in their PR machine, playing the role of grateful woman of colour whose work has been elevated by the oh-so-generous publishers.

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I loved the various depictions of friendship - the one that blossomed between Anisa and Shiba at the Centre, and Anisa’s longterm friendship with Naima which shifts after Naima meets someone. But I felt like her relationship with Adam was too obviously just a plot-pusher (I mean obviously, we need to move forward!), and in the end I didn’t feel like there was much resolution there.

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In general towards the end, everything got wrapped up a little quickly, but that doesn’t take away from the fact that this is a propulsive, smart, addictive read that I v much enjoyed my time with!