“Either/Or” is a sequel that amplifies the meaning of its predecessor while expanding its philosophical ambit — in short, the best kind. Elif Batuman picks up the story of Selin Karadag, the wry ...

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 ...

When news breaks, you need to understand what actually matters — and what to do about it. At Vox, our mission to help you make sense of the world has never been more vital. But we can’t do it on our ...

Linda: Most of us have been brought up to think in either/or terms. We may not even realize how much it is costing us to continue these old patterns that dominate our thinking. Either/or thinking ...

It can be difficult to find a funny and smart literary novel that’s also full of heart, but New Yorker staff writer Elif Batuman’s 2017 novel, “The Idiot,” nailed it. That book chronicled the 1995-96 ...

Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. Elif Batuman told an interviewer recently that one of the things she loves about writing from the point of view ...

With her debut novel “The Idiot” having been crowned a finalist for a Pulitzer Prize in Fiction, Elif Batuman set towering expectations for the sequel “Either/Or.” Beginning where the first novel left ...

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, ...

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 ...