{"product_id":"the-idiot-paperback","title":"The Idiot (Paperback)","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e'A moving, continent-hopping coming-of-age story' \u003ci\u003eObserver\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003cbr\u003e**SHORTLISTED FOR THE WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTION 2018**\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSelin, a tall, highly strung Turkish-American from New Jersey turns up at Harvard and finds herself dangerously overwhelmed by the challenges and possibilities of adulthood. She studies linguistics and literature, and spends a lot of time thinking about what language - and languages - can and cannot do. Along the way, she befriends Svetlana, a cosmopolitan Serb, and obsesses over Ivan, a mathematician from Hungary. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSelin ponders profound questions about how culture and language shape who we are, how difficult it is to be a failed writer, and how baffling love is. At once clever and clueless, Batuman's heroine shows us with perfect hilarity and soulful inquisitiveness just how messy it can be to forge a self.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'\u003cb\u003eI loved it and could have read a thousand more pages of it' Emma Cline, author of \u003ci\u003eThe Girls\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Elif Batuman","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":40304313598130,"sku":"9780099583172","price":275.0,"currency_code":"ZAR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0562\/9191\/8002\/products\/51173_611e36612c3144.18881521_9780099583172_3752a9dd-0891-4b73-a11e-babbf7b9685d.jpg?v=1658983283","url":"https:\/\/www.wordsworth.co.za\/products\/the-idiot-paperback","provider":"Wordsworth Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}