# The Idiot

Canonical: https://www.bookquiver.com/elif-batuman/the-idiot/9780099583172

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![The Idiot](https://quivercdn.com/covers/vintage/elif-batuman/the-idiot_978-00-9958-317-2.jpg?v=2026-04-22%2017%3A30%3A37)

- Book: [The Idiot](https://www.bookquiver.com/elif-batuman/the-idiot) ([The Idiot.md](https://www.bookquiver.com/elif-batuman/the-idiot.md))
- Authors: [Elif Batuman](https://www.bookquiver.com/elif-batuman)
- Publisher: Vintage
- ISBN: 978-00-9958-317-2
- Pages: 432
- Published: 2018-04-26
- Language: en_GB
- Binding: Softcover

## Description

I loved it and could have read a thousand more pages of it' Emma Cline, author of The Girls **SHORTLISTED FOR THE WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTION 2018** 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