The Possessed

Adventures with Russian Books and the People Who Read Them

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About this listen

Roaming from Tashkent to San Francisco, this is the true story of one budding writer's strange encounters with the fanatics who are devoted - absurdly! melancholically! ecstatically! - to the Russian classics. Combining fresh readings of the great Russians from Gogol to Goncharov with the sad and funny stories of the lives they continue to influence, The Possessed introduces a brilliant and distinctive new voice: comic, humane, charming, poignant and completely, and unpretentiously, full of an infectious love for literature.

Elif BatumanElif BatumanAudible Studios

Adventure Travel

Literary History & Criticism

Russian & Soviet

World Literature

Russia

Funny

Soviet Union

Adventure Travel Literary History & Criticism Russian & Soviet World Literature Russia Funny Soviet Union

Most relevant

This book is dream-like, it’s a sweet and transparent recount of the author’s clearheaded adventures in literary academia. Her narration is soft and sweet and infuses the text with self-effacing melancholy. Five stars.

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