Since childhood, Elif Batuman has been on a quest to find in literature “direct relevance to lived experience, especially to love.” Following her doctoral dissertation at Stanford, which explored how ...

Elif Batuman’s latest novel, “Either/Or,” drops you into 1996, where Selin is a second-year Harvard student. As the reader, unsure how you’ve ended up in 1996, you accept that she is now your best ...