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The Idiot
- Narrated by: Elif Batuman
- Length: 13 hrs and 40 mins
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Publisher's Summary
Finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction
A portrait of the artist as a young woman. A novel about not just discovering but inventing oneself.
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.
Named one the best books of the year by Refinery29, Mashable One, Elle Magazine, The New York Times, Bookpage, Vogue, NPR, Buzzfeed, and The Millions.
What the critics say
A New York Times Book Review Notable Book
Longlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction
“Easily the funniest book I’ve read this year.” (GQ)
“Masterly funny debut novel...Erudite but never pretentious, The Idiot will make you crave more books by Batuman.” (Sloane Crosley, Vanity Fair)
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What listeners say about The Idiot
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- Anonymous User
- 2022-11-04
The Idiot -Batuman
The author is clearly clever. I could not connect with this book. Read it for book club. Can not recommend. Maybe I missed the point?
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- Joel Duff
- 2023-05-29
Mesmerizing embodiment of universal truths
Rich in reflection and introspection, this book is nearly impossible to describe to others but richly draws the reader into the youthful and confusing search for love and meaning. The reading rings true to the narrator and gives this audiobook an intimate and confessional feel the perfectly fits the story.
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- Amazon Customer
- 2023-02-13
Sparse but true chapters
Magnificent book. It might feel difficult. Coming of age, sexual (non)awakening, ambiguity that tries to argue nothing but teach us everything. Remind yourself of the book’s title, and keep going.
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- Christina Gould
- 2018-09-15
The book was great - the narration was ok
I really enjoyed this book - it is well written and quite funny. The narration itself wasn't as dynamic as other's I've listened to. Would read more from this author but wouldn't seek out the narrator. #Audible1
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- Sheena McNeill
- 2023-05-25
I couldn't get past the horrible narration
I purchased this audio book. I only made it to about chapter 20. The author narrates, but you would never know this person had any care or concern for this story or the characters. She is dry and emotionless. it's near impossible to know which character is speaking as there is no attempt to differentiate. Her tone is flat and terribly boring. I wish I could remark on the story itself, but I ended up returning this title. wish they had paid an actress to narrate.
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- JRL
- 2019-03-15
Could not get into it
I don’t understand the beginning of the book, I could not get into it. Lost me
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- Leah Hearne
- 2023-10-09
Yawn
This book, the story and the reader absolutely bored me to tears - nothing but a waste of time
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- Anonymous User
- 2023-01-18
Painful narration
I could not finish the book due to the narration and the slow burn of the story
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