Cannon Book Launch: Lee Lai in-conversation

Shortlisted for awards in Australia and overseas, praised in The New York Times and the The New Yorker and declared a ‘best new book’ by The Age, NPR and the Guardian, Cannon is ‘an utterly glorious sophomore graphic novel’ from the author of the Stella-finalist Stone Fruit. Growing up in Melbourne and currently based in Canada, Lee Lai will be in conversation with fellow cartoonist Fionn McCabe for her Sydney book launch, an event featuring screen visuals and readings.

We arrive to wreckage – a restaurant smashed to rubble, with tables and chairs upended riotously. Under the swampy nighttime cover of a Montreal heatwave, we meet our protagonist, Cannon, dripping in beads of regret sweat. She was supposed to be closing the restaurant for the night, but instead, she destroyed it. The horror-scape left in her wake is not unlike the films Cannon and her best friend, Trish, watch together. Cooking dinner and digging into deep cuts of Australian…