Elif Batuman – författare

The year is 1995, and email is new. Selin, the daughter of Turkish immigrants, arrives for her freshman year at Harvard. She signs up for classes in subjects she has never heard of, befriends her charismatic and worldly Serbian classmate, Svetlana, and, almost by accident, begins corresponding with Ivan, an older mathematics student from Hungary. Selin may have barely spoken to Ivan, but with each email they exchange, the act of writing seems to take on new and increasingly mysterious meanings.

At the end of the school year, Ivan goes to Budapest for the summer, and Selin heads to the Hungarian countryside, to teach English in a program run by one of Ivan's friends. On the way, she spends two weeks visiting Paris with Svetlana. Selin's summer in Europe does not resonate with anything she has previously heard about the typical experiences of American college students, or indeed of any other kinds of people. For Selin, this is a journey further inside herself: a coming to grips with the ineffable and exhilarating confusion of first love, and with the growing consciousness that she is doomed to become a writer.

With superlative emotional and intellectual sensitivity, mordant wit, and pitch-perfect style, Batuman dramatizes the uncertainty of life on the cusp of adulthood. Her prose is a rare and inimitable combination of tenderness and wisdom; its logic as natural and inscrutable as that of memory itself. The Idiot is a heroic yet self-effacing reckoning with the terror and joy of becoming a person in a world that is as intoxicating as it is disquieting. Batuman's fiction is unguarded against both life's affronts and its beauty--and has at its command the complete range of thinking and feeling which they entail. The Idiot is the perfect gift for the holidays!

An instant New York Times bestseller!A New York Times Notable Book of 2022“Batuman has a gift for making the universe seem, somehow, like the benevolent and witty literary seminar you wish it were . . .This novel wins you over in a million micro-observations.” —The New York TimesFrom the acclaimed and bestselling author of The Idiot, the continuation of beloved protagonist Selin’s quest for self-knowledge, as she travels abroad and tests the limits of her newfound adulthoodSelin is the luckiest person in her family: the only one who was born in America and got to go to Harvard. Now it’s sophomore 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 weird ex-girlfriend now trying to get in touch with Selin? 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 resolves to execute them in practice—no matter what the cost. Next on the list: international travel. Unfolding with the propulsive logic and intensity of youth, Either/Or is a landmark novel by one of our most brilliant writers. Hilarious, revelatory, and unforgettable, its gripping narrative will confront you with searching questions that persist long after the last page.

Discover TikTok's new favourite book.'I loved it and could have read a thousand more pages of it' Emma Cline, author of The GirlsSelin, 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 adulthoodBut 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

A collection of brand-new short stories written by prize-winning, bestselling writers and inspired by Kafka - published to commemorate the centenary of his death*Chosen as a 2024 highlight in the Guardian, the Financial Times, the Daily Mail, New Statesman, Esquire and the New European*Franz Kafka is widely regarded as one of the great geniuses of twentieth-century literature. What happens when some of the most original literary minds of today take an idea, a mood or a line from his work and use it to spark something new?From a future society who ask their AI servants to construct a giant tower to reach God; to a flat hunt that descends into a comically absurd bureaucratic nightmare; to a population experiencing a wave of unbearable, contagious panic attacks, these ten specially commissioned stories are by turns mind-bending, funny, unsettling and haunting. Inspired by the visionary imagination of a writer working one hundred years ago, they speak powerfully to the strangeness of being alive today.

A collection of brand-new short stories written by prize-winning, bestselling writers and inspired by Kafka - published to commemorate the centenary of his death*Chosen as a 2024 highlight in the Guardian, the Financial Times, the Daily Mail, New Statesman, Esquire and the New European*Franz Kafka is widely regarded as one of the great geniuses of twentieth-century literature. What happens when some of the most original literary minds of today take an idea, a mood or a line from his work and use it to spark something new?From a future society who ask their AI servants to construct a giant tower to reach God; to a flat hunt that descends into a comically absurd bureaucratic nightmare; to a population experiencing a wave of unbearable, contagious panic attacks, these ten specially commissioned stories are by turns mind-bending, funny, unsettling and haunting. Inspired by the visionary imagination of a writer working one hundred years ago, they speak powerfully to the strangeness of being alive today.

'Kafka himself would love it' The i'As captivating as it is thought-provoking' Glamour'Unsettling and uneasy' Daily Mail'Glorious' Harper's BazaarA collection of brand-new short stories written by major international writers and inspired by Kafka What happens when Kafka's idionsyncratic imagination meets some of the greatest literary minds writing in English across the globe today? In this collection of stories, commissioned to commemorate one hundred years since his death, ten of our most celebrated international writers take ideas of Kafka's - motifs from his stories, titles of his famous works, or unfinished fragments left behind in his Blue Octavo Notebooks - and run with them to make something new.

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

'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

'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

Hon är den sortens läsare som lockar dig tillbaka till din egen bokhylla med ett sublimt surrande i huvudet. Du vill känna det hon känner.

The New York Times Book Review

Utifrån en hängiven kärlek till den ryska litteraturens största klassiker har Elif Batuman skrivit en personlig, smart och oavbrutet underhållande samling berättelser om böcker, litteratur och läsning.

Bara i Besatta får du läsa om litterära forskarkonferenser, Samarkands sevärdheter, vad som binder samman King Kong med Isaak Babel, Lev Tolstojs död, pojkbenstävlingar, vokalharmonins betydelse, kejsarinnan Annas ispalats, det intellektuella livet och själens uppgivenhet – och lära dig något om gammaluzbekiskans över hundra ord för att gråta.

Elif Batuman (född 1977) är författare, forskare och journalist, bl. a. medverkar hon regelbundet i The New Yorker. Hennes föräldrar är från Turkiet, men hon är uppväxt i USA. Hon har examen från både Harvard och Stanford, där hon också har undervisat. För närvarande är hon bosatt i Istanbul. År 2007 belönades hon med Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers’Award.

Hon är den sortens läsare som lockar dig tillbaka till din egen bokhylla med ett sublimt surrande i huvudet. Du vill känna det hon känner.

The New York Times Book Review

Det är inte ofta man skrattar högt när man läser en bok om litteraturkritik ... i en blandning av reseskildring, memoarer och litteraturkritik, tar Elif Batuman oss på en osannolik resa genom den ryska litteraturen.

Christian Science Monitor

Tycker man om att läsa, så tycker man om den här boken!

Yukiko Duke, Gomorron Sverige

Jag längtar redan efter att läsa om Elif Batumans fantastiska bok

Svenska Dagbladet

... alltsammans är lika förbannat roligt, lärorikt och underhållande.

Helsingborgs Dagblad

Välskriven, smart och humoristisk

Smålandsposten

Det är uppfriskande att läsa Batuman. Hennes vetgirighet och passion driver henne vidare och det är ett engagemang som inspirerar. Besatta är inte likt något annat.

Norrländska Socialdemokraten

Besatta får mig att minnas varför litteraturen är så fantastisk och varför jag mest av allt älskar att läsa böcker.

Bokhora

En oemotståndlig, hisnande berättelse om äventyr med ryska böcker och människorna som läser dem. Turkisk-amerikanska Elif Batuman har skrivit en bok som inte liknar något jag tidigare läst. Hon är rolig och bildad och skildrar sina husgudar Babel, Tolstoj och Dostojevskij med flammande kärlek, samtidigt som hon i förbifarten serverar osannolika historier om Dantenördar, vampyrfolk och tsaritsan Anna Ivanovnas ispalats.

Ingalill Mosander, Aftonbladet

Elif Batuman har full koll på Tjechov, Tolstoj, Pusjkin och deras kollegor, hyser stor kärlek till dem, och kan därför leka med dem på sitt sätt. Snillrikt, med både humor och allvar, gör hon passionerad litteratur om litteratur. Besatta är så nödvändigt uppiggande att den omedelbart botar en litterär depression.

Lina Kalmteg, Svenska Dagbladet

Turkisk-amerikanska Batuman tar sig an de där riktigt tjocka och dystra ryska romanerna och diktböckerna som ger så många läsare så dåligt samvete. Efter hennes lustfyllda, roliga och mycket personliga essäer är det inte svårt att lystet kasta sig over Turgenjev, Tolstoj, Pusjkin och Babel.

Jonas Thente, Dagens Nyheter