Vita Nostra hits all my sweet spots: dystopia, Kafka, magical realism, Harry Potter, linguistics and philosophy, even the logic of programming. The opening felt sluggish - I had to push myself through, impatient with the heroine's teenage angst (a stage I've long since outgrown). But once Professor of Specialty delivered his first lecture, the book seized me completely: from that moment, it became impossible to set aside. What follows is a strange education rendered through magical realism.