“I think it’s to my parent’s credit that I had enough self-confidence.” writer Elif Batuman Ph.D. ’07 told the audience in Dinkelspiel Auditorium on Wednesday, “Whenever I thought I was bad at writing ...

If there is one word to describe Elif Batuman's new novel The Idiot, it's the word "mundane." And that just might be the novel's greatest strength. The book follows the year in the life of Selin, a ...

Batuman’s follow-up to “The Idiot” follows the same character into her second year at Harvard. By Dwight Garner When you purchase an independently reviewed book through our site, we earn an affiliate ...

Many read to help process reality. A book’s ability to capture life experiences — though perhaps different from a reader’s own — provides a sense of comfort, a step closer to solidarity and away from ...

Since childhood, Elif Batuman has been on a quest to find in literature “direct relevance to lived experience, especially to love.” Following her doctoral dissertation at Stanford, which explored how ...

Hundreds gathered in Emerson Hall Thursday to hear American author Elif Batuman ’99 and Harvard English professor Beth Blum in a conversation hosted by Harvard’s Mahindra Humanities Center. During the ...

The author Elif Batuman and some of her favorites. Illustration: Eliana Rodgers The author Elif Batuman and some of her favorites. Illustration: Eliana Rodgers I’m always trying to live an easy life.

Literary sequels are difficult to pull off. I read Elif Batuman’s new novel, “Either/Or,” directly after rereading her 2017 novel, “The Idiot.” That’s 700 pages of the same naive adolescent character, ...

There is a certain type of reader who, working her way through Proust, can think only of her own most recent heartbreak. She might be shy and bookish; certainly she is young. This reader might of ...

The title of Elif Batuman’s debut novel “The Idiot” echoes that of a certain classic by Dostoyevsky, and Batuman’s work does contain many nods to Russian literature. But perhaps more significant is ...

Elif Batuman teaches at Stanford University, and her first book of essays, “The Possessed,” dances between autobiography, travel-writing and literary criticism with dazzling flair and originality.