The mind behind The Arrival returns with a triumph of a graphic novel, a vivid fable about a girl who is told by a stranger that she doesn’t belong in the only world she knows
Twenty years after the publication of The Arrival – the wordless graphic novel that won several literary awards – writer and illustrator Shaun Tan has penned another career-defining masterpiece. Taking nearly a decade to complete, Hometown is a triumph in visual storytelling and fable, presented in Tan’s confident and controlled voice and style.
Where The Arrival explored the complexities of migration and belonging in a mystifying new place, Hometown ponders the question: what if you really came from somewhere else? The new graphic novel is not a follow-up to The Arrival, but a dexterous continuation of Tan’s fascination with and talent for creating strange-yet-familiar worlds, and how his characters belong within them.