The Possessed: Adventures With Russian Books and the People Who Read Them

“An extra man,” “a ray of light in a dark kingdom,” “the system jammed,” “the Decembrists awakened Herzen”… Dull literary clichés. Many of us met Russian classics back in school years — forced, unpleasant, and cool. Adults return to school reading only after many years. And they are amazed, delighted, and fall in love with what once seemed unbearable, incredible nonsense.

Here is the story of a person who is much happier than we are. Elif Batuman, an American, didn’t attend a Russian school — she tackled our classics herself and gradually realized she had found the meaning of life. Her entertaining and witty audiobook offers Russian readers a rare chance to look at Russian culture through a foreigner’s eyes.

“An internally liberated person with an excellent sense of humor and unique powers of observation has deeply and vividly experienced the perception of Russian literature. It carries a certain special lyricism, lacks blind academic piety, and therefore — one would like to believe — brings the world of classic Russian literature closer to the modern American reader.” (O. Antsyferova, journal “Voprosy literatury” 2011, 2)