When I told my friends, they were like, “Oh, my god, is it going to be a tetralogy?” People will be like, “Oh, in volume four will you find out if she got enough credits to graduate?” It’s kind of a comically literal sequel to The Idiot in that it starts in sophomore year of college.

The book that I’m writing now is called Either/Or. You’ve said The Idiot was the prequel to the book you originally planned to write. Get ready for Halloween as the Vox Book Club reads Mexican Gothic What volume two of The Idiot will look like We’ll start our discussion of Mexican Gothic on October 16 sign up for our newsletter to make sure you don’t miss anything in the meantime. It’s our October book club pick and the perfect story to get you in the Halloween spirit. Once you finish up here, I highly recommend starting Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s Mexican Gothic, if you haven’t already. I’ve also collected a few highlights, lightly edited for length and clarity, below. The Idiot was our back-to-school book, and I think it is safe to say that we all learned a great deal from Professor Batuman’s session.Ĭheck out the video above to watch our full conversation. In a beautifully wide-ranging conversation, she filled us in on what the sequel to The Idiot that she’s working on right now looks like, why the novel is a politically radical form, and why you should never be embarrassed about anything. And to culminate our month of discussion, Batuman herself paid a virtual visit to the club for a live chat with us on Zoom. The Vox Book Club spent September reading The Idiot, Elif Batuman’s witty and touching campus novel about trying to become a writer at Harvard in 1995. The Vox Book Club is linking to to support local and independent booksellers.

The Idiot by Elif Batuman