Nina Bunjevac Book order

Nina Bunjevac's brilliant debut graphic novel returns in this expanded 10th Anniversary edition. "Powered by an expressive black and white drawing style, reminiscent of Robert Crumb and the meticulous pointillist technique of Drew Friedman, the dark undertone of Bunjevac's humour brings into light the range of socio-political issues her comics deal with, such as gender, nationalism or urban alienation, always from an ironic feminist perspective. Her chain-smoking, slightly alcoholic and manically depressed character Zorka may just be today's ultimate antiheroine. A Balkan immigrant in the Brave New World, working in that same meat factory for the last twenty years, tormented by family constraints and her own secret desires... we simply can't get enough of her." -- BTurn For mature audiences

A strikingly rendered and spiritually transformative tarot set, penned by a masterful contemporary illustrator.

The author’s jumping-off point is the myth of Artemis and Siproites, in which a young man is turned into a woman as a punishment for the attempted rape of one of Artemis’s virgin cohorts. Bunjevac’s retelling follows Benny, a sexually deviant man who, coming across an alluring former classmate, concocts an elaborate, disturbing rape fantasy. Inked in her lush, stippled, illustrative style, Bunjevac crafts a gripping, noirish, Nabokovian tale, by turns surreal and harrowing, that turns the male gaze inside-out. Bezimena is both a radical examination of the misconceptions surrounding rape culture and an artistic and psychological tour de force.

The narrative explores the tumultuous history of the Balkans through the author's personal lens, detailing her mother's flight from a fanatical marriage to return to Yugoslavia with her children. The backdrop includes the father's radical Serbian nationalism and his involvement with a terrorist group in Canada, culminating in his accidental death while constructing a bomb. This poignant story intertwines family dynamics with the broader socio-political upheaval of the time, highlighting themes of identity, conflict, and the impact of extremism.