The Arrival is a migrant story told as a series of wordless images that might seem to come from a long forgotten time.
A man leaves his wife and child in an impoverished town, seeking better prospects in an unknown country on the other side of a vast ocean. The Arrival is Shaun Tan’s masterpiece, a completely silent tale for all ages. A wordless book — except the title — it’s about immigration and the wonder and largely dark strangeness and anxiety of that passage.
There is also a lot of generous sentiment for helping out people in need, as is also demonstrated across the world and will have to continue to be demonstrated for a long time.
The book brings out the strangeness, the anxiety, the fear, the cautious hopefulness associated with venturing out into the unknown, evidenced brilliantly by Tan in sepia-toned and darker shadings. Especially worth noting are the creation of small and large fantastical creatures, symbolic of the newness and strangeness the immigrants face, at once both welcoming and frightening.
A thoughtful read which makes one think about immigration including the fears and difficulties that come along with being alone in a strange place.