Arrival, through the eyes of Sofia Politou-Berveris October 21, 2021 – Posted in: Books – Tags: Shaun Tan, The arrival, New release, Fluffy
Dreams have been sailing since the beginning of the world. How long can the hand get long by holding a suitcase for years?
"The arrival" of the Australian Shaun Tan, from the Furfouri editions, it is one book without words. It is a graphic novel with "silent book" characteristics. And yet, this book is worth reading. Many readings and many emotions.
A family of three falls into the disadvantageous position of disability due to immigration. The father bids farewell to his partner and daughter for a better professional rehabilitation. Where he will be transferred, he will meet other people who have experienced separation or uprooting, in the same or completely different way. For the protagonist, these meetings are small beacons in the wilderness of isolation, exclusion.
With low-key color combinations and a style that combines realism with the abstract, our creator goes through the brown colors of introversion to the golden colors of the great exit. The environment in which the human figures move is strange with futuristic traces. The shadows, from the beginning of the work, exceed what we would call a perfect work, and we reach the finish unnecessary and full of light. We want there to be light as a conclusion to every difficult adventure.
From the first images of this edited edition we hear the words of the book within us. Words hidden in the heart, in the closed fists of life that agony. Words that lips whispered tenderly into palms that change color, shape, that their ability to touch and endure are tested in the unknown.
Immigration. Immigration. And the life that agony, the agony for life. The hope, the dream, a flock of white paper birds that venture around the world holding in their beaks the silence of man who must endure and wait. And where to deliver this hope?
Where are these armies of people going whose chessboard rooks have been demolished by disastrous economic and political strategies? What will their pet be now? The expectations? The fear; The boldness? Loneliness; The carteria?
All unknown and all familiar in the places that the artist Shaun Tan takes us to. All nothing and all home.
Before we become the game, the boat, and the endless water, before the ticket machine starts, let's fool the authorities and give name, status, and space to the free man.
And if the places are divided, these handfuls of life that are in agony open and greet peacefully, and the light drains and diffuses and that's how what we call life continues.
Prepare your inner child. This book, "The arrival" by Shaun Tan, will shake it up.
– Sofia Politou-Berveris
