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| The Arrival | 
 enlarge | Author: Shaun Tan
Publisher: Arthur A. Levine Books
Category: Book
List Price: $19.99
Buy New: $12.38
You Save: $7.61 (38%)
New (34) Used (15) Collectible (4) from $10.87
Avg. Customer Rating:  38 reviews
Sales Rank: 1868
Media: Hardcover
Reading Level: Ages 9-12
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 128
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.8
Dimensions (in): 11.8 x 9 x 0.6
ISBN: 0439895294
EAN: 9780439895293
ASIN: 0439895294
Publication Date: October 1, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: Brand New, Perfect Condition, Please allow 4-14 business days for delivery. 100% Money Back Guarantee, Over 1,000,000 customers served.
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Product Description
"A shockingly imaginative graphic novel that captures the sense of adventure and wonder that surrounds a new arrival on the shores of a shining new city. Wordless, but with perfect narrative flow, Tan gives us a story filled with cityscapes worthy of Winsor McCay." -- Jeff Smith, author of Bone
"A magical river of strangers and their stories!" -- Craig Thompson, author of Blankets
"Magnificent." -- David Small, Caldecott Medalist
In a heartbreaking parting, 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.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 33 more reviews...
Beautiful doesn't even cover it September 30, 2007
119 out of 122 found this review helpful
There are some books that come across my plate that strike me as mildly amusing. There are some books I develop a passion for over time. But once in a very great while, one per year if I'm lucky, I will find a book that gives me a powerful shock. An almost electric, instantaneous passion. "The Arrival" by Shaun Tan is the most amazing thing I've had the pleasure to read in years. A silent story of sequenced panels, "The Arrival" tells the story of a man's immigration to a strange new land, and the people and places he discovers in the course of finding a place to call home. I have never read any book that puts the reader so perfectly into the shoes of someone who finds themselves somewhere that is completely and utterly bewildering to the senses.
A man prepares to leave his family for a new world. Tearfully they let him go as he boards a ship for another land. Once he arrives, he finds himself at a loss. Everything from the language to the buildings to the birds is strange here. The reader of this book sympathizes easily with the man since author/illustrator Shaun Tan has created a world that is just as odd to us as it is to our protagonist. Appliances consist of confusing pulls and toggles. People live and work in plate and cone-shaped structures, traveling via dirigibles and strange ship-shaped machinations of flight. As the man proceeds to discover how to find lodging, food, and work, he meets other immigrants who tell their own stories of hardship and escape. Through all this, our man grows richer for his experiences and even grows to love the odd little white-legged cat-sized tadpole creature that follows him everywhere. By the end, his family has arrived as well and the last image in the book is of his daughter as she helps another immigrant get directions in this dazzling and magnificent city.
Sometimes you fall in love with a book when you remember all the tiny details and little moments in it. At one point our hero looks in a pot and sees a spiked tail of a boy's pet. The man is shocked and frightened and has to explain that he comes from a land where spiked tails have a horrific significance. Another time you get quick easy-to-miss little glimpses of everyday street scenes. A couple loading gigantic eggs into a cart on a street. A man getting a shave as a family of dog-sized hermit crabs scuttle underfoot. Street musicians surrounded by foxlike birds playing instruments you've never seen before. The book can feel like it's excerpting scenes from The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari one moment and then In America the next. And I've rarely seen an illustrator capture images of laughter, real honest-to-goodness laughter, any better Tan has here. On his website, the artist credits much of his research to a variety of books about the immigrant experience, to say nothing of his father's memories of coming to Australia from Malaysia, interviews Tan conducted himself, and photographs that have found their way into this title as well.
In another part of his website, Tan explains that in this book, "the absence of any written description also plants the reader more firmly in the shoes of an immigrant character." Tan is undoubtedly at his best when he allows the reader the chance to feel the sense of wonder and confusion that comes from immersing yourself in a culture you're unfamiliar with. At one point our hero has dinner with a charming family. They eat odd spiky dishes that are prepared with unfamiliar torches. They play instruments you've never seen before and speak of escaping unimaginable, almost metaphorical, horrors. You are the main character in this book. His confusion is your confusion, and quite frankly he seems to adapt to his surroundings far better than I think most of us could. The language you encounter at all times is indecipherable. Even the clocks and the forms of transportation are magnificent and frightening. Yet at the same time, many of the people the man encounters are kind and try to help him navigate about. Tan knows too that if he makes the familiar just a little bit unfamiliar, that alone can confuse someone. So when the immigrants pull into a harbor, they see two large statues shaking hands in lieu of The Statue of Liberty.
I loved the animal companions that latch on to the humans in this book. They reminded me of Philip Pullman's, His Dark Materials daemons, though if they have any kind of spiritual significance it's left to the reader to determine what that might be. As Tan says on his site, "I am often searching in each image for things that are odd enough to invite a high degree of personal interpretation, and still maintain a ring of truth." He is not interested in the kind of symbolism where one object will stand for only one thing. He prefers to let people interpret his pictures in whatsoever way they prefer. If you feel these strange little animal companions are meant to symbolize how a person adapts to their new location, so be it. Tan isn't going to tell you what to think. He's just going to give you a helluva story and then let you do the rest yourself.
The art itself is phenomenal. Every language you see in this book is obviously made up, but no two languages you see here look the same. I repeat: You can tell the differences between separate imaginary languages. The realism of the style makes each picture look like a grainy sepia photograph taped inside a photo album. In fact, Tan has said that, "I was also struck with the idea of borrowing the `language' of old pictorial archives and family photo albums I'd been looking at, which have both a documentary clarity and an enigmatic, sepia-toned silence. It occurred to me that photoalbums are really just another kind of picture book that everybody makes and reads, a series of chronological images illustrating the story of someone's life." So many of the memories in this book have a buckled quality to their corners. They look bent or pasted into the book in some way. There are wrinkles and tears and pieces that have flaked off over time. The quality of the sepia changes too. Sometimes the story is black and white, sometimes a golden honeyed-brown. In one sequence an old man remembers marching off to war. When going through a town the pictures appear in warm tones. Then we watch just the man's feet as they step over rocks and streams and the dead, and the palette grows darker and starker until we've just the blurred image of feet running. There's a quick view of the men attacking and then a single full page spread of black and white bones in a field.
I didn't realize it at first, but I've been a fan of Shaun Tan's work for years. In 2003 I was living in Minneapolis, Minnesota during a time when their main library branch was undergoing renovations. On a whim I visited their off-site location and wandered through their children's room, looking for anything good. And there, standing all by its lonesome in the center of the space, was a striking picture book entitled, The Rabbits by John Marsden, illustrated by Shaun Tan. It was like nothing I'd ever read before. Published by the always magnificent Simply Read Books, the story was a crushing description of a native group of aboriginal animals destroyed utterly and totally by an invading society of rabbits. The words were heartbreaking in and of themselves, but the illustrations were the real draw. They contained magnificent intricate details hidden within page after page of text. Shaun Tan is like an industrialized and roughened William Joyce. His societies are full of dirt and muck and unspoken unstated horrors. They can reek of displacement more effectively than fifty pages of text could ever convey. So while "The Arrival" felt familiar to me, I didn't immediately associate it with its creator's former works. The feel of vast unfamiliar cityscapes is still present, but Tan leavens this latest offering with his human figures.
It seems almost unfair to the other publishers that Scholastic would have the wherewithal to publish not only this book but also Brian Selznick's, The Invention of Hugo Cabret in the same year. Scholastic has been especially good lately at locating books with strong visual narratives and adding them to their catalog. From the re-released colorized versions of Jeff Smith's Bone series to Raina Telegemeier's graphic novel adaptation of The Baby-Sitters Club, Scholastic is pushing the envelope time and again. My deepest hope is that "The Arrival" finds its audience. Because I could write paragraphs and paragraphs more about the meticulous details and searing personal portraits found in this story, I'll just cut myself off now. Be sure to corner me at a party sometime, though, and I'll wax eloquent for days on end if you let me.
It takes a deft hand to draw a book that can tell an emotionally resonant story without a single word and that works entirely in the medium of pictures. Shawn Tan says that "Even the most imaginary phenomena in the book are intended to carry some metaphorical weight..." I cannot praise this book highly enough then. Every story, every face, and every person in this book feels as if they carry the with them a thousand memories. You read this book in no doubt that Tan's research and personal history has given "The Arrival" the hardest thing any novel can have; a soul. The best book published in America in 2007.
Extraordinary! Nothing Else Like It! October 4, 2007
29 out of 29 found this review helpful
Shaun Tan's The Arrival may be the most beautiful book I've ever seen. The Arrival is a 128 page picture book that tells the story of an immigrant. It could be the story of any immigrant going to any new land, but it happens to be the story of a man heading off to a bizarre yet beautiful world that is so unfamiliar to anything that we know of today to set up a home for his wife and child. The food, the creatures, the jobs, the way of life, the way of travel...it's all new and bizarre and told beautifully through Tan's haunting, sepia toned artwork. Each villager that he meets has their own story of how they came to the land and what they left behind. What Tan presents is an homage to every migrant that's ever traveled to a new world and set up a new life for themselves. The story is told through pictures only - no words, and no words are needed. This is a beautiful book and I can't help but feel that every family should have a copy on their bookshelf.
Exquisite October 6, 2007
27 out of 27 found this review helpful
Shaun Tan's book is a feast for the eyes and a gentle reminder of the difficulties that everyone faces adapting to a new environment. My son just started middle school at a new school and this book was a lovely way of reminding him that change is hard for everyone, not just children. This book could just as easily be for adults however, as it's political overtones are clear: the drive to escape oppression, lack of freedom, and poverty.
A watershed book. October 25, 2007
18 out of 19 found this review helpful
Let me begin my review with an attempt to describe this graphic novel's first chapter:
"The Arrival" begins with a departure: the first images shown are nine squares arrayed three across and three down on the page. The squares depict from right to left, top to bottom an origami bird; a mantel clock (It's ten minutes after ten.); a man's hat and a woman's head kerchief hanging on a wall; a humble cook pot and wooden spoon; a child's line drawing of a family showing father, mother, and child; a cracked, yet steaming, tea pot; a partially filled tea cup - also chipped - sitting on a saucer next to some papers, one of which shows a steam ship; an open but packed suitcase; and the final image on the page is that of a family of three: a young father, mother, and daughter. The next page of nine images starts by showing that this last image of the family from the previous page is in fact a framed photograph which is removed from a shelf, lovingly wrapped, and packed away in the suitcase.
This page is followed by a full page drawing of a young couple (The parents in the photograph.) gently touching hands over the packed suitcase resting atop a kitchen table on which are set the teapot, two cups of tea, and the papers (Tickets?). Behind the couple is a fire place with the origami bird and the clock on the mantle's ledge, the cooking pot in the hearth, the hat, kerchief, and the child's drawing hanging on the hearth's face.
Next is a page of twelve squares, three across, four down, that show the daughter waking from sleep, having a bowl of food, looking at the suitcase, next comes the father donning his hat, the mother putting on her head kerchief, then helping the girl dress, the girl lifting the suitcase to her father, and he reaching down to accept it.
The next six pages show the family holding hands and appearing very small as they walk down dark streets while threatening serrated shadows whip across the walls above them. The family arrives at a train station. Here, the father removes his hat exposing the origami bird resting on his head, he gives this small white bird to his daughter, the family embraces, he boards the train, the mother and father grasp hands as the train begins to pull away, and the train vanishes into the dark horizon. The final page of this first chapter depicts the mother and daughter walking home as the sky seethes with ominous tentacle like shapes.
The chapters that follow chronicle the father's voyage and the confusion of his relocation; his trials and tribulations, challenges and frustrations met and overcome, joys and wonders experienced, and friends made; all ending with the reuniting of the family in better circumstances. Along the way, "The Arrival" also chronicles other immigrants' stories.
All this is told without one word; every action, scene, interchange is illuminated by images beautifully rendered in charcoal or sepia crayon. The drawings attest that Mr. Tan is a first rate draughtsman: no matter whether the subject drawn is a landscape, an interior, or a figure, the grays are nuanced, the darks are rich, the lines expressive, and his panel to panel composition is perfectly linked.
Even if these drawings were straight forward depictions this book would be a noteworthy effort, but the images here transcend the familiar to include the magical and the phantasmagorical: objects odd and delightful, creatures bizarre and beguiling, and landscapes enchanting and horrific. The cliche "A feast for the eyes and the mind" is the perfect description here. One can "read" through the story fairly quickly, but one's eyes will always feel compelled to return to, linger over, and contemplate these images and each return will enrich one's appreciation of the story.
I think this is a benchmark graphic novel by which all other such works should be compared. Everyone and anyone who loves good, emotionally satisfying, stories and beautifully drawn images should own a copy of this book. I know that everyone I know and love will be getting this book as an early holiday gift.
I have yet to see a graphic novel equal or superior to this and I doubt I'll ever see one that is better. Please excuse my gushing.
Highly recommended.
Powerful imagery makes its point July 15, 2008
10 out of 10 found this review helpful
This book tells the story of an immigrant, who leaves his homeland for reasons that are unclear but definitely seem to be unpleasant. He is overwhelmed by his new home, and absolutely nothing seems familiar, to the point of no longer being recognizable. The food is different, the language is different, the currency is different, the animals are different, and he cannot read the writing. His inability to read the writing is demonstrated quite graphically, literally, by having all the writing use an alphabet other than any I have seen from any country on Earth. He must find a place to live, a job so that he can support himself, and figure out how to survive. The foreignness and the overwhelming strangeness of the land is demonstrated by having many ordinary objects be much larger than normal, as well as having a definite surreal atmosphere pervade the entire book. Will the immigrant find a way to live? Can he find happiness? Can he be reunited with his family, by helping them be able to join him?
This might be the most unusual book I have "read," and it is hard to review it. Brian Selznick's The Invention of Hugo Cabret was about seventy percent illustrations, blended seamlessly with text, yielding a riveting tale. The Arrival is one hundred percent illustrations, that appear to be pencil drawings. The illustrations are excellent in quality, making this at least as much an art collection as a novel. The content varies from photograph-like to surrealism, slightly reminiscent of a blend of Van Gogh and Rivera. The paper is very high in quality and the cover looks almost like an ancient leather-bound manuscript. The entire book has an antique look and feel to it, with the paper looking aged and slightly water stained around the edges, and a sepia tone to the images.
My initial impression of the book was that the author had gone a bit too far in making his point. By taking the unfamiliar and portraying it as surreal and unearthly, I thought this was an example of overstatement causing the author to lose track of his own point. But, this is a book that, once read, keeps echoing and reverberating. I now think I was taking it too literally, at first, as the more lasting impression is one of the book having been truly haunting and, despite the downright alien (as in extraterrestrial) look of many of the image, Shaun Tan has genuinely captured the feel of chronic and pervasive displacement experienced by many immigrants. Again, like some artwork, the impact of this book is not immediate, but in its lasting effect.
Personal note: One the cover of the book is an image of the protagonist, and an animal that is not of this reality. That animal, the protagonist's pet and companion in the strange land, became symbolic of what I think of the book: at first, I saw it as a prime example of the author going too far; now, I want a critter like that! In a way, you can judge this book by its cover.
-- Chris McCallister, author of Coming Full Circle
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