35 pages 1 hour read

Elif Batuman

The Idiot

Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2017

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Part 2, Chapter 5Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapter 5 Summary: “August”

Selin’s remaining time at the village passes uneventfully and before long she heads to Istanbul to meet up with her mother and other relatives. Her flight arrives in Istanbul, where someone from her aunt’s pharmaceutical company is supposed to meet her. However, Selin cannot that person and since her phone does not work in Turkey, she is unable to call. A young man approaches her and sells her a phone token in exchange for her foreign money. Selin calls the pharmaceutical company several times until they finally tell her the name of the driver, who turns out to be known to her.

After spending a few days sightseeing in Istanbul, Selin and her aunt join Selin’s mother and their other relatives in Antalya. Selin misses Ivan and does not fit in with her cousins. She is so unhappy that at one point she becomes physically sick, but eventually gets better.

There are a lot of Russian tourists at the resort and Selin tries talking to a man in Russian while both of them take a break from swimming on a floating platform. The man is a businessman who is interested in making money. Selin feels sexually attracted to him and worries that she is someone who can be seduced by money.