Either/Or

Our funniest overthinker - and the queen of the campus novel… Selin is a droll and disarming narrator, and takes her place as one of the finest hapless scholars in the literary canon. – Johanna Thomas-Corr * Sunday Times *
Batuman has a gift for making the universe seem, somehow, like the benevolent and witty literary seminar you wish it were … This novel wins you over in a million micro-observations. – Dwight Garner * The New York Times *
A richly suggestive and amusing book. – Jonathan Derbyshire * Financial Times *
Such an enchanting writer. – Johanna Thomas-Corr * Sunday Times *
Either/Or is both an entertaining campus novel and an engaging disquisition on the very nature and purpose of novels. * Financial Times, Summer Reads of 2022 *
Stupendous … hilarious… Batuman is a genius, rendering human folly at its most colorful and borderline surreal – Lauren Mechling * Vogue *
The central pleasure of reading Elif Batuman’s ferociously intelligent fiction…[is] the thrill of encountering things you already half-knew, rendered in language with lyrical precision… hopefully, there will be a third installment of the adventures of Elif Batuman’s brilliantly modern picaro. * Times Literary Supplement *
Wonderfully idiosyncratic… Charming – Alex Clark * Guardian *
Delightful… Batuman has a formidable deadpan wit… Selin is not only an astute observer but displays a touching capacity for awe. * Spectator *
A charming, mordantly funny follow-up to her first novel… triumphal. * Daily Mail *
Either/Or is an astute and very amusing read, packed with pin-sharp observations delivered in a deadpan style. * i *
Selin, the magnetic protagonist in Batuman’s brilliant and comedic first novel, The Idiot (2017), returns … Selin reads and ponders the human condition, culminating in a breath-catching ending that will leave spellbound readers hoping for more from Batuman’s bright and witty adventurer of conscience. * Booklist (starred review) *
[A] charming, smart and completely idiosyncratic take on art, life and the gap between. – Stephanie Cross * Daily Mail, Books to Look Out For 2022 *
One of the most convincing fictional descriptions of overwhelming despair I have read… Batuman… [has] extraordinary control of the narrative voice. * London Review of Books *
Effervescent … Observant, defiant, and newly on antidepressants, Selin approaches the mystery of human relations with a beginner’s naivete and sharp intelligence … Batuman’s light touch and humor are brought to bear on serious questions … As accomplished as The Idiot was, this improves upon it, and Batuman’s already sharp chops as a novelist come across as even more refined in these pages. Readers will be enraptured. * Publishers Weekly (starred review) *
A brilliant meditation on womanhood and identity. By turns hilarious and illuminating. – Irenosen Okojie
What elevates this far above the typical campus novel is Ms. Batuman’s wry perspective … Selin’s observations are frequently hilarious, sometimes touching and always original … There’s both a sweet innocence and a sophisticated meta aspect to all this, a level on which Either/Or is about how Selin (and her creator) came to create the very book we’re reading . . . [A] charming, hyper-literary novel … To be continued, we hope. * Wall Street Journal *
Batuman, a Pulitzer Prize finalist and New Yorker writer, brings delicious detail and light irony to her heroine’s quest. * Oprah Daily, “The 50 Most Anticipated Books of 2022” *
Either/Or is driven by intellectual questions: it’s a novel of ideas narrated by a protagonist who, even in her misery, is delightful company. – Hannah Rosefield * Literary Review *
Elif Batuman’s debut novel, The Idiot, is one of the best works of fiction published in the 21st century. Her new novel, Either/Or, picks up where The Idiot left off… . Batuman has an extremely keen sense for what makes characters engaging and renders it all in supernaturally observant and funny prose. * AV Club, “The 15 most-anticipated books of 2022” *

Elif Batuman has been a staff writer at the New Yorker since 2010. She is the author of The Possessed: Adventures with Russian Books and the People Who Read Them. The recipient of a Whiting Writers’ Award, a Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers’ Award, and a Paris Review Terry Southern Prize for Humor, she also holds a PhD in comparative literature from Stanford University.

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