The ingenious, hilarious new novel from award-winning writer Elif Batuman - 'It's a novel about being young and stupid that's both wise and clever - and it's a treat' Evening Standard

'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...
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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