Evoking Louis C. K.‘s humor and Amy Winehouse’s longing and anguish, and paying homage to Malamud and Chekhov, Lena Finkle’s Magic Barrel is a funny and moving story, beautifully told.

Anya Ulinich turns her sharp eye toward the strange, often unmooring world of 'grown-up’ dating in this darkly comic graphic novel. After her fifteen-year marriage ends, Lena Finkle gets an eye-opening education in love, sex, and loss when she embarks on a string of online dates, all while raising her two teenage daughters. The Vampire of Bensonhurst, the Orphan, Disaster Man, and the Diamond Psychiatrist are just a few of the unforgettable characters she meets along the way. Evoking Louis C. K.‘s humor and Amy Winehouse’s longing and anguish, and paying homage to Malamud and Chekhov, Lena Finkle’s Magic Barrel is a funny and moving story, beautifully told.

'Funny, painful, outrageous … Anya Ulinich is the David Sedaris of Russian-American cartoonists.’ Gary Shteyngart
‘Intelligent, sincere, and painfully funny, Lena Finkle’s Magic Barrel is the divorced women’s Maus.’ Etgar Keret, author of The Nimrod Flipout and Suddenly, A Knock on the Door

‘Fun, lively, dirty, honest, outrageous, and deep.’ Jami Attenberg, author of The Melting Season and The Middlesteins

‘This book will make you laugh so hard you’ll get stares from strangers. In crisp, mordant prose, Anya Ulinich lampoons bohemian Brooklyn parents, bad aspiring writers, and elusive emo boys. But make no mistake- she is deadly serious on female desire and her ultimate subject, the search for selfhood. Lena Finkle will stay with you long after her journey ends.’ Amy Sohn, author of The Actress and Prospect Park West

‘Hilarious and heartbreaking in exactly equal measure. Anya Ulinich’s uncompromising artistic vision is glorious, unique, and rare.’ Emily Gould, author of And the Heart Says Whatever and Friendship