The Idiot

Description

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.

Awards

A New York Times Book Review Notable BookFinalist for the Pulitzer Prize for FictionShortlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction 2018

Reviews

STAFF REVIEW

One of my all-time favourites! Batuman is unbelievably witty, clever and accessible in her writing.

'The Idiot' focuses on a girl in her first year of college, studying Russian literature, falling in love, and being entirely funny and precocious. It's quirky, intelligent and full of thought provoking ideas and insights, and makes you want to stay in the character's mind forever.

—Lily from Brunswick Street Bookstore