Elif Batuman\'s first novel, The Idiot, was a finalist for a Pulitzer Prize, and was shortlisted for the Women\'s Prize for Fiction in the UK.
She has been a staff writer at The New Yorker since 2010 and holds a PhD in comparative literature from Stanford University..
She is also the author of The Possessed: Adventures with Russian Books and the People Who Read Them , which was a finalist for a National Book Critics Circle Award in criticism.
Elif Batuman\'s first novel, The Idiot, was a finalist for a Pulitzer Prize, and was shortlisted for the Women\'s Prize for Fiction in the UK