“Tolstoy didn't know about steampunk or cyborgs, but he did know about the nightmarishness of steam power, unruly machines, and the creepy half-human status of the Russian peasant classes. In 'Anna Karenina,' nineteenth-century life itself is a relentless, relentlessly modern machine, flattening those who oppose it.”

American author, academic, and journalist

Elif Batuman is an American author, academic, and journalist. She writes fiction and nonfiction, and is known for The Possessed, The Idiot, and Either/Or. Her work spans memoir, the novel, and magazine journalism. She is a staff writer for The New Yorker, and her books include The Possessed (2010), The Idiot (2017), a finalist for the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, and Either/Or (2022).