Broadcaster and musician Sook-Yin Lee is reading this graphic novel about escaping the Khmer Rouge
Sook-Yin Lee is an award-winning filmmaker, broadcaster, actor and musician based in Toronto.
Her latest album jooj two is a collaboration with her late former partner Adam Litovitz. The sequel to their first art-pop album JOOJ, features songs the duo worked on prior to Litovitz's death by suicide in 2019.
Lee stopped by The Next Chapter to talk about the book she's currently reading: Year of the Rabbit by Tian Veasna, a graphic novel about a family trying to escape the murderous Khmer Rouge in Cambodia.
"Year of the Rabbit is an autobiographical graphic novel by Tian Veasna, and it draws from his history of living through the Khmer Rouge Cambodian tumult. The story begins three days after Tian was born in 1975, when the Khmer Rouge, the communist group, took over from the American-led Khmer Republic and seized power in Phnom Penh.
It's heavy stuff, but the drawing is very warm and human.
"Tian Veasna was trying to make sense of all this in the early years of his life and it's his account of how his family ended up having to survive through this this incredible genocide and war. It's heavy stuff, but the drawing is very warm and human. The line work is specific, but also loose. It invites you in and you endear yourself to the characters, the family members.
"There are no ogres here. He humanizes the rebels. So I think about our world now and just how quickly things can change. It's a fantastic, fantastic book."
Sook-Yin Lee's comments have been edited for length and clarity.
