AustLit logo

AustLit

image of person or book cover 3538068244183229868.jpg
This image has been sourced from Goodreads.
y separately published work icon Stone Fruit single work   graphic novel  
Issue Details: First known date: 2021... 2021 Stone Fruit
The material on this page is available to AustLit subscribers. If you are a subscriber or are from a subscribing organisation, please log in to gain full access. To explore options for subscribing to this unique teaching, research, and publishing resource for Australian culture and storytelling, please contact us or find out more.

AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'Bron and Ray are a queer couple who enjoy their role as the fun weirdo aunties to Ray’s niece, six-year-old Nessie. Their playdates are little oases of wildness, joy, and ease in all three of their lives, which ping-pong between familial tensions and deep-seated personal stumbling blocks. As their emotional intimacy erodes, Ray and Bron isolate from each other and attempt to repair their broken family ties — Ray with her overworked, resentful single-mother sister and Bron with her religious teenage sister who doesn’t fully grasp the complexities of gender identity. Taking a leap of faith, each opens up and learns they have more in common with their siblings than they ever knew.

'At turns joyful and heartbreaking, Stone Fruit reveals through intimately naturalistic dialog and blue-hued watercolor how painful it can be to truly become vulnerable to your loved ones — and how fulfilling it is to be finally understood for who you are. Lee Lai is one of the most exciting new voices to break into the comics medium and she has created one of the truly sophisticated graphic novel debuts in recent memory.' (Publication summary)

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

    • Melbourne, Victoria,: Brow Books , 2021 .
      image of person or book cover 3538068244183229868.jpg
      This image has been sourced from Goodreads.
      Extent: 236p.
      Note/s:
      • Published May 11th 2021
      ISBN: 9782377315598

Works about this Work

The Language of Images : Judging a Graphic Book by Its Cover Bernard Caleo , 2022 single work review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , December no. 449 2022; (p. 48-49)

— Review of Stone Fruit Lee Lai , 2021 single work graphic novel ; Men I Trust Tommi Parrish , 2022 single work graphic novel
'The covers of comic books/graphic novels/sequential narratives, call them what you will, have a fundamentally different relationship to the contents of their books than the covers of ‘ordinary’, text-only works. For the latter, the cover image is usually produced by a designer whom the author does not know and may never meet. In the case of comics, however, the cover image is made by the same hand that creates the images that proliferate within the book. The cover of a text-only book is communicating a sense of what the book is like through the totally different language of images. For the browser, that’s like trying to decide whether to attend a concert on the strength of a billposter. With a comic book, the sort of thing you see on the cover is the sort of thing you get inside. A comic book begins before you even open it. Basically, you can judge a comic book by its cover.' (Introduction) 
The Language of Images : Judging a Graphic Book by Its Cover Bernard Caleo , 2022 single work review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , December no. 449 2022; (p. 48-49)

— Review of Stone Fruit Lee Lai , 2021 single work graphic novel ; Men I Trust Tommi Parrish , 2022 single work graphic novel
'The covers of comic books/graphic novels/sequential narratives, call them what you will, have a fundamentally different relationship to the contents of their books than the covers of ‘ordinary’, text-only works. For the latter, the cover image is usually produced by a designer whom the author does not know and may never meet. In the case of comics, however, the cover image is made by the same hand that creates the images that proliferate within the book. The cover of a text-only book is communicating a sense of what the book is like through the totally different language of images. For the browser, that’s like trying to decide whether to attend a concert on the strength of a billposter. With a comic book, the sort of thing you see on the cover is the sort of thing you get inside. A comic book begins before you even open it. Basically, you can judge a comic book by its cover.' (Introduction) 

Awards

2022 joint winner Comic Arts Awards of Australia Gold Award
2022 winner Lambda Awards LGBTQ Comics
2022 shortlisted The Stella Prize
Last amended 13 Jan 2022 11:24:41
X