Shaun Tan's The Arrival is a wordless graphic novel about a man who immigrates to a foreign land to establish a better life for his family. The book's photo-realistic illustrations depict an invented world that blends the familiar with the fantastical, and the antiquated with the futuristic.
The book begins when the unnamed protagonist leaves his wife and daughter with a suitcase in hand. Large black spiky tail- or tentacle-like objects loom menacingly over their deserted neighborhood. The man travels by ship to a foreign land teeming with industry and people. After passing through an Ellis Island–like screening that tests his literacy skills and his health, the man finds a cramped room to rent. In the room, he discovers a tadpole-dog creature. Although he nearly attacks it, the man takes pity on the creature and leaves it be. The creature accompanies the man as he goes out in search of work. He eventually finds a job at a factory where he does quality control on bottle-little objects that move past him on a conveyor belt. As he navigates the unfamiliar culture's transportation, foods, and language, the man meets a woman who escaped slavery as a girl, a food seller who fled giants who were vacuuming up his people, and a former soldier whose people were slaughtered in a genocide. When the man has sent enough money to his wife and daughter, they immigrate as well. Once reunited, the family settles into their new life happily. The book ends with the daughter giving directions to a recent arrival who is having difficulty with a map.
Exploring themes of alienation, loneliness, oppression, and aspiration, The Arrival draws on real-life examples to tell a universal immigrant story. The book, which was published in 2006, won several awards, among them the Angoulême International Comics Festival Prize for Best Comic Book.
Tan has said that his four-year process for creating the book involved taking inspiration from historical photos. He also used photography to create a storyboard, shooting photos of models in his garage to ensure continuity across panels.
