𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝘾𝙚𝙣𝙩𝙧𝙚
by Ayesha Manazir Siddiqi
【當語言技能成為可以購買的商品，你願意為這筆交易付出多少代價？】
來自巴基斯坦的譯者艾妮莎蝸居在倫敦的公寓裡，靠翻譯寶來塢電影維生，但她仍渴望著有朝一日能接觸「更偉大的作品」，在那些震懾人心、影響深遠的文學裡，一展她的語言與翻譯長才。在一場翻譯研討會上，她被亞當超凡的語言天賦折服，兩人迅速墜入愛河，同居、養貓、論及婚嫁。然而奇怪的是，亞當竟然能一夜之間就學會艾妮莎的母語烏爾都語。在逼問之下，亞當吞吞吐吐地承認自己不是什麼神童—他的語言能力，都來自一所名為 ”Centre” 的推薦制神祕機構。
Centre 提供最頂尖的菁英教育課程，號稱讓學員10天內就能嫻熟運用任何外語。當然，所費不貲—學費要價兩萬英鎊。為了實現夢想，艾妮莎說什麼都要勒緊褲帶擠出兩萬元，同時說服男友引薦她入學。經歷漫長痛苦的申請過程，Centre 大門終於對艾妮莎敞開，而她發現這裡不但與世隔絕，作息和規矩也相當嚴苛：為取得最大的學習成效，嚴禁和他人接觸。隨著艾妮莎與 Centre 的牽連越深，她逐漸意識到，實現夢想的代價，可不只有高昂的學費和嚴苛規定，但，這一切都是值得的…對吧？
📣店員真心推薦： 𝘾𝙚𝙣𝙩𝙧𝙚 是身兼譯者與作者身分的 Ayesha Manazir Siddiqi 首部小說作品，她以黑色幽默風格的文字鋪陳令人手不釋卷的懸疑科幻小說，推薦給對翻譯為題材有興趣、喜歡匡靈秀 𝘽𝙖𝙗𝙚𝙡《巴別塔學院》的讀者。
ISBN: 9781529097849
尺寸: 13 x 2.1 x 19.7 cm
頁數: 320 頁
Anisa Ellahi dreams of being a translator of ‘great works of literature’, but instead mostly spends her days subtitling Bollywood films in her flat in London while living off her parents’ generous allowance and discussing the ‘underside of life’ with her best friend, Naima. Then she meets Adam, who has successfully leveraged his savant-level aptitude for languages into an enviable career. At first, this only adds to her sense of inadequacy, but when Adam learns to speak Urdu with native fluency practically overnight, Anisa forces him to reveal his secret.
Adam tells Anisa about the Centre, an elite, invite-only program that guarantees absolute fluency in any language in just ten days. Sceptical but intrigued, Anisa enrols. Stripped of her belongings and all contact with the outside world, she undergoes the Centre's strange and rigorous processes. But as she enmeshes herself further within the organisation, seduced by all that it’s made possible, she soon realizes the disturbing, hidden cost of its services.
