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A collection of essays by New Yorker contributor Elif Batuman has been snapped up by Granta, for publication as a lead title next spring.
UK & Commonwealth rights excluding Canada and Australia to The Possessed: Adventures with Russian Books and the People who Read Them were bought by Michal Shavit via Victoria Hobbs as AM Heath, on behalf of Elyse Cheney in New York. Granta declined to disclose the sum paid.
Batuman, who has also written for Harper's Magazine, and teaches at Stanford, is a first-generation Turkish woman who grew up in New Jersey, where she "became enthralled by the great Russian writers".
Shavit described the essays as blending "academic adventures, travelogues, biography, and autobiography". She added: "The book is a candid, funny and erudite book celebrating the invaluable and pleasurable ways we can bring our lives closer to our favourite books."
The book was also bought by Lorin Stein at FSG in the US.