Search results for ""Author Elif Batuman""

SELIN IS THE LUCKIEST PERSON IN HER FAMILY:The only one who was born in America and got to go to Harvard. Now it''s her second year, 1996, and Selin knows she has to make it count. The first order of business: to figure out the meaning of everything that happened over the summer. Why did Selin''s elusive crush, Ivan, find her that job in the Hungarian countryside? What was up with all those other people in the Hungarian countryside? Why is Ivan''s ex-girlfriend now trying to get in touch with her? On the plus side, her life feels like the plot of an exciting novel. On the other hand, why do so many novels have crazy, abandoned women in them? How does one live a life as interesting as a novel-a life worthy of becoming a novel-without becoming a crazy, abandoned woman oneself?Guided by her literature syllabus and by her more worldly and confident peers, Selin reaches certain conclusions about the universal importance of parties, alcohol, and sex, and res

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'The funniest book I've read in a long time: its deadpan, dry humour and its accumulation of absurdities will leave you rolling on your floor with laughter' The Times She thought she was a lover of the great classics of Russian literature - until she met the superfans... Roaming from Tashkent to San Francisco, this is the true story of one budding writer's strange encounters with the fanatics who are devoted - absurdly! melancholically! ecstatically! - to the Russian classics. Combining fresh readings of the great Russians from Tolstoy to Dostoevsky with the sad and funny stories of the lives they continue to influence, The Possessed is comic, humane, charming, poignant and full of an infectious love for literature. 'Dazzlingly good ... very bookish, very clever and very funny... a preposterously engaging volume' Jane Shilling, Sunday Telegraph 'The highest compliment you can pay such a book is that it sends you back to the original authors refreshed. I can go one higher - I found my

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The new novel from the bestselling author of The Idiot follows one young woman's quest for self-knowledge, as she travels abroad and tests the limits of her newfound adulthood. 'Elif Batuman is the queen of the campus novel... Enchanting' Sunday TimesSELIN IS THE LUCKIEST PERSON IN HER FAMILY:The only one who was born in America and got to go to Harvard. Now it's her second year, and Selin knows she has to make it count. The first order of business: to figure out the meaning of everything that happened over the summer...On the plus side, her life feels like the plot of an exciting novel. On the other hand, why do so many novels have crazy, abandoned women in them? And how does one live a life as interesting as a novel - a life worthy of becoming a novel - without turning into a crazy, abandoned woman oneself?'Stupendous... Hilarious... Batuman is a genius' Vogue'This novel wins you over in a million micro-observations' New York Times'Searingly smart' Evening Standard

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'The funniest book I've read in a long time: its deadpan, dry humour and its accumulation of absurdities will leave you rolling on your floor with laughter' The Times She thought she was a lover of the great classics of Russian literature - until she met the superfans... Roaming from Tashkent to San Francisco, this is the true story of one budding writer's strange encounters with the fanatics who are devoted - absurdly! melancholically! ecstatically! - to the Russian classics. Combining fresh readings of the great Russians from Tolstoy to Dostoevsky with the sad and funny stories of the lives they continue to influence, The Possessed is comic, humane, charming, poignant and full of an infectious love for literature. 'Dazzlingly good... Very bookish, very clever and very funny... A preposterously engaging volume' Jane Shilling, Sunday Telegraph 'The highest compliment you can pay such a book is that it sends you back to the original authors refreshed. I can go one higher - I found myself simply wanting to read more from Elif Batuman' Evening Standard 'An intoxicating mix of travel memoir, autobiography, literary criticism and philosophy... Charming and hilarious' Daily Telegraph

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Discover TikTok's new favourite book.'I loved it and could have read a thousand more pages of it' Emma Cline, author of The Girls Selin, a tall, highly strung Turkish-American from New Jersey turns up at Harvard with no idea what to expect. What she doesn't expect is: - How much time she will spend thinking about language and its limitations - An opinionated cosmopolitan Serb named Svetlana, who will become her confidante - A mathematician from Hungary called Ivan, whom she will obsess over when she is supposed to be studying - Feeling dangerously overwhelmed by the challenges and possibilities of adulthood But most of all, Selin does not expect to embark on a study of precisely how baffling love can be when you are trying to forge a self... _______________- PRAISE FOR THE IDIOT: 'A moving, continent-hopping coming-of-age story' Observer 'Elif Batuman surely has one of the best senses of humour...refreshing and unique' Sheila Heti 'Full of zingy one-liners' Financial Times 'Hilarious, brilliant observations about writing, life and crushes' Curtis Sittenfeld 'Delightful and slyly funny' Red

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