Funny Accent

Anna Schopenhauer is thirty-two, witty, and sharp, yet she keeps finding herself drawn to men far older than she is. The pattern goes back to her thirteenth year, when Misha, a manipulative charmer who was a friend of her parents, pressed a kiss onto her lips. Two decades later, Anna has moved through a string of older lovers, one of them a celebrated Jewish author, and none of them has satisfied her.

Anna writes a short story for The Atlantic Monthly that lays bare her long, painful entanglement with Misha. Its publication forces Misha, Anna, and her parents to reckon with what happened years earlier. Anna travels back to Scarsdale for her father's seventieth birthday, bracing for the fallout and scheming a bit of payback against Misha, hoping to finally put an end to the cycle.