The Idiot

‘A moving, continent-hopping coming-of-age story’ Observer

**SHORTLISTED FOR THE WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTION 2018**

Selin, a tall, highly strung Turkish-American from New Jersey turns up at Harvard and finds herself dangerously overwhelmed by the challenges and possibilities of adulthood. She studies linguistics and literature, and spends a lot of time thinking about what language – and languages – can and cannot do. Along the way, she befriends Svetlana, a cosmopolitan Serb, and obsesses over Ivan, a mathematician from Hungary.

Selin ponders profound questions about how culture and language shape who we are, how difficult it is to be a failed writer, and how baffling love is. At once clever and clueless, Batuman’s heroine shows us with perfect hilarity and soulful inquisitiveness just how messy it can be to forge a self.

‘I loved it and could have read a thousand more pages of it’ Emma Cline, author of The Girls

SPECIFICATIONS:

Author:Elif Batuman - Элиф Батуман

Publisher:Random House

Language:English

Publication Date:2018

Number of pages:432 pst

Format:Paperback

Width:130 mm / 5,1'

Height:200 mm / 7,9'

Weight:360 g

ISBN:9780099583172