A man gives his wife and daughter a last kiss and boards a steamship to cross the ocean. He’s embarking on the most painful yet important journey of his life – he’s leaving home to build a better future for his family. Shaun Tan evokes universal aspects of an immigrant’s experience through a singular work of the imagination. He does so using brilliantly clear and mesmerizing images. Because the main character can’t communicate in words, the book forgoes them too. But while the reader experiences the main character’s isolation, he also shares his ultimate joy.
This book is a wordless picturebook.
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[...] The Arrival (2006), by Shaun Tan, combines the main character’s inability to speak in the foreign tongue of his new homeland with a wordless picture book. Following the magnificent pictures, the reader is able to personally experience the main character’s feelings of isolation, while also sharing in his eventual joy. [...]