The Idiot

In the autumn of 1995 Selin, whose parents came to America from Turkey, arrives at Harvard and finds she has been given an email address. She takes courses in literature and in linguistics, teaches English to immigrants, puzzles over the limits of language, and becomes friends with Svetlana, a sophisticated Serbian classmate. In Russian class she meets Ivan, an older Hungarian studying mathematics, and the messages they trade late at night become the most thrilling part of her life, though his intentions stay unclear to her. When summer comes she spends two weeks in Paris with Svetlana and then goes to a village in Hungary to teach English, still trying to understand what first love is.

AI-generated summary

About the book

Form

Novel

Genres

Coming of age, Love (assigned by AI)

Set in

United States, France, Hungary, 1995–1996

First published

2017

Author's age

40 when first published

ISBN

9781594205613 (Penguin Press, United States)

9780143111061 (Penguin Books, United States)

9780099583172 (Vintage, United Kingdom)

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