I spend a lot of my reading time just trying to stay on top of new releases. One great thing about all the reading challenges I do is they sometimes require me to reach into backlists and discover a gem that’s more than a few years old. Take, for instance, The Arrival by Shaun Tan, which will be 20 years old next year. I needed a “wordless comic” for the Read Harder challenge and someone in the HRCYED Discord recommended it to me. There’s probably no way I ever would have found it otherwise, and it was such a delightful read.
The Arrival is told entirely in sepia colored images. Ranging in size from detailed images little bigger than a postage stamp to gorgeous two-page spreads, they reveal a story of a man who immigrates to a new country in search of a home for his family.
Tan does a great job of conveying the confusion of being in a strange land by making the land strange to the reader as well — it’s populated by unusual critters and weirdly shaped food, and the lettering is indecipherable. Just as our unnamed protagonist must try to puzzle his way into finding work, food, and a place to live, we must try to piece together his story just from images.
I really enjoyed Tan’s artwork. It reminded me a bit of Dave McKean, whose work is now tainted for me by his association with Neil Gaiman (I only encountered him through those collaborations). It’s a little bit steam- or dieselpunk, and the various creatures that the city’s denizens keep as pets are absolutely adorable.
This is an ultimately hopeful book, but it is not without its moments of darkness. Our protagonist has fled a country plagued by monsters. He meets other immigrants who have also left behind places were they were not safe. I found myself thinking of Warsan Shire’s powerful poem Home, with the opening lines: No one leaves home unless home is the mouth of a shark.
The Arrival was shelved in the Teen section of my library, and I feel like it’s an approachable immigration story for tweens and young teens that lets them fill in the blanks as appropriate for their age level, and from there, they can find more detailed stories of the experience of being an immigrant or a refugee. Hopefully, they can also read Shire’s poem, if they’re old enough to process its discussions of rape and violence.
And just because this was shelved in the Teen section doesn’t mean its just for teens! The protagonist is an adult, dealing with other adults; it tells an adult story in a way that can be accessible for young readers, but isn’t limited to them. It’s probably a little too heavy and abstract for very young readers (there are a couple of scary images), but much like Trees by Kelsey Oseid, this feels like a book appropriate for most ages.
Check out this beautiful book! And ask for book recs that help you look beyond the new release shelf!
TWs and CWs: There are images of bones and monsters, suggestions of child abuse and child labor that might have been slavery.
Source and Format: I borrowed a hardback from Sno-Isle Libraries.
Reading Challenge Prompts
Book Riot: Wordless Comic. It almost feels like cheating to “read” a book without words, but the images in this graphic novel convey so much!
Reading Challenge Progress
Nook & Cranny (Card 1): 18 of 25, 3 bingos.
Nook & Cranny (Card 2): 22 of 25, 6 bingos.
Book Riot: 18 of 24.
Physical TBR: 10 of 12.
World of Whimm: 21 of 24, 6 bingos.