検索キーワード： "Elif Batuman" 女性文学

A portrait of the artist as a young woman. A novel about not just discovering but inventing oneself. The year is 1995, and email is new. Selin, the daughter of Turkish immigrants, arrives for her freshman year at Harvard. She signs up for classes in subjects she has never heard of, befriends her charismatic and worldly Serbian classmate, Svetlana, and, almost by accident, begins corresponding with Ivan, an older mathematics student from Hungary.

Studentă în anul doi la Harvard, Selin încearcă să își descifreze relația neconsumată cu Ivan. Mirările și nebuniile tipice vieții studențești nu-i aduc cele mai mari satisfacții, iar dinamica dintre femei și bărbați adesea o exasperează. Dornică să-și depășească dezamăgirea amoroasă și să înțeleagă condiția umană, Selin apelează la un ghid existențial mai puțin convențional: operele unor autori precum Proust, Pușkin sau Breton. Cel mai seducător model de existență se dovedește însă a fi cel propus de Kierkegaard, care opune hedonismul comportamentului responsabil, așteptat de societate.

Selin is the luckiest person in her family: the only one who was born in America and got to go to Harvard. Now it’s sophomore year, 1996, and Selin knows she has to make it count. The first order of business: to figure out the meaning of everything that happened over the summer. Why did Selin’s elusive crush, Ivan, find her that job in the Hungarian countryside? What was up with all those other people in the Hungarian countryside?

Nell Barber, an expelled PhD candidate in biological science, is exploring the fine line between poison and antidote, working alone to set a speed record for the detoxification of poisonous plants. Her mentor, Dr Joan Kallas, is the hero of Nell’s heart. Nell frequently finds herself standing in the doorway to Joan’s office despite herself, mesmerized by Joan’s elegance, success and spiritual force.