Farrar, Straus and Giroux
18 West 18th Street, New York 10011
Copyright © 2010 by Elif Batuman
All rights reserved
Distributed in Canada by D&M Publishers, Inc.
Printed in the United States of America
First edition, 2010
Some of these essays have appeared, in slightly different form, in Harper’s Magazine, n+1, and The New Yorker.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Batuman, Elif, 1977–
The possessed : adventures with Russian books and the people who read them / Elif Batuman.—1st ed.
p. cm.
ISBN 978-0-374-53218-5 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Russian literature—Appreciation. I. Title.
PG2986 .B33 2010
891.7'09—dc22
2009025416
Designed by Jonathan D. Lippincott
1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2