'The Possessed must be one of the funniest books ever written about Russian literature or grad school. Sometimes you're so amused that you can almost overlook the envy-inducing naturalness and smarts of Elif Batuman's prose. To call her one of the best writers of her generation is only stating the obvious.'Benjamin Kunkel

If you're going to read just one book about conference planning, Isaac Babel, Leo Tolstoy, Boy's leg contests, giant apes, Uzbek poetry, the life of the mind, and resignation of the soul-seek no farther : this is the book for you !!!

The Possessed draws on Elif Batuman's articles in The New Yorker, Harper's Magazine, and n+1 to tell the true story of one woman's intellectual and sentimental education and her many strange encounters with fellow scholars devoted - absurdly ! melancholically ! beautifully ! - to the Russian classics.

'Elif Batuman transfers her passion for Russian literature as easlily as she might lend you a copy of Anna Karenina. Here, she says, hold this. And the moment you do, the love affair begins.' Sloane Crosley