Shaun Tan's silent graphic novel 'The Arrival' returns to Italian bookstores after eight years

After eight years, Tunué editions of Latina have brought Shaun Tan's 'L'approdo' (The Arrival) back to Italian bookstores. The Australian author of Malaysian origin was 32 when he first published this wordless graphic novel, which relies entirely on images to tell the story of a man leaving his family in an oppressed country to seek fortune abroad. The book, which took four years to create, uses surreal and silent storytelling to evoke the disorientation of migration, inspired by anecdotes from migrants including Tan's father who emigrated from Malaysia to Western Australia in 1960. Tan's other major success is the 3D animated short 'The Lost Thing' (based on his 2000 book), which won an Oscar in 2011. The volume's cover resembles an old photo album, and the internal monochromatic drawings reference late 19th and early 20th century migration iconography. Tan's technique involved sketching, filming small cardboard sets with friends and family, and combining archival photos of migrants from the late 19th century before redrawing each scene in pencil. The book is not for children but offers a sophisticated blend of literary, cinematic, and pictorial echoes.