Published in 2006, The Arrival by Shaun Tan is a wordless graphic novel about a man's journey to a new home. We follow an unnamed man as he flees his homeland, beset by dragons, and tries to make his way in a new and unfamiliar world. Using evocative pencil and charcoal sketches, with occasional variances in shading and tone, The Arrival tells an often melancholic and ultimately hopeful story about belonging and acceptance.
Like Tan's books The Lost Thing and The Red Tree, The Arrival features surreal and often confusing imagery. All of his stories are fundamentally human at their heart, finding new ways of imagining the connections people share, despite their many differences.
