--- product_id: 1203990 title: "The Arrival" price: "€ 36.97" currency: EUR in_stock: true reviews_count: 13 url: https://www.desertcart.be/products/1203990-the-arrival store_origin: BE region: Belgium --- # The Arrival **Price:** € 36.97 **Availability:** ✅ In Stock ## Quick Answers - **What is this?** The Arrival - **How much does it cost?** € 36.97 with free shipping - **Is it available?** Yes, in stock and ready to ship - **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.be](https://www.desertcart.be/products/1203990-the-arrival) ## Best For - Customers looking for quality international products ## Why This Product - Free international shipping included - Worldwide delivery with tracking - 15-day hassle-free returns ## Description A truly remarkable work of art that is already one of the most talked-about books of the season. "A masterpiece." -- Jeff Kinney, author of The Diary of a Wimpy Kid series "Tan's lovingly laid out and masterfully rendered tale about the immigrant experience is a documentary magically told." -- Art Spiegelman, author of Maus "An absolute wonder." -- Marjane Satrapi, author of Persepolis "A magical river of strangers and their stories!" -- Craig Thompson, author of Blankets "A shockingly imaginative graphic novel that captures the sense of adventure and wonder that surrounds a new arrival on the shores of a shining new city. Wordless, but with perfect narrative flow, Tan gives us a story filled with cityscapes worthy of Winsor McCay." -- Jeff Smith, author of Bone "Shaun Tan's artwork creates a fantastical, hauntingly familiar atmosphere... Strange, moving, and beautiful." -- Jon J. Muth, Caldecott Medal-winning author of Zen Shorts "Bravo." -- Brian Selznick, Caldecott Medal-winning author of The Invention of Hugo Cabret "Magnificent." -- David Small, Caldecott Medalist Review: Beautiful illustrations, very touching story. Great "coffee table" book. - I first saw this book as part of an exhibit at the George Eastman Museum in Rochester, NY. I'm not really sure why it was there - it was sitting on a bench in one of the galleries. I leafed through it briefly - the illustrations are so beautiful that I bought two - one for me, one as a gift. It's possible to just thumb through the book and appreciate the illustrations - but it's definitely worthwhile to start at the beginning and follow the story. I may buy more to give as gifts in the future. Review: Amazingly, Shaun Tan Shows Us Our Own World Through a Newcomer's Eyes - "The Arrival" is a genre-connecting hardback picture book that took Shaun Tan four years to create based on narratives of immigrants coming to the U.S., combined with visual references he studied from antique post cards, historical photographs and even paintings and etchings by earlier artists. This is a very, very carefully designed work that may remind readers of the stunning experience the first time you read "Maus: A Survivor's Tale," the famous graphic novel about the Holocaust by Art Spiegelman. (In fact, Spiegelman's praise for "The Arrival" appears on the back cover of the book, calling this "something new and exceptionally worthy.") "The Arrival" tells the story of a young father who leaves his wife and daughter behind in their impoverished and dangerous homeland to journey to a distant city based on the New York City of an earlier era. Like millions of immigrants over the past two centuries, he is the patriarch of a family bravely going on ahead to establish a home for his family in a new world. Many of the beautifully rendered images in the book are straight out of Ellis Island historical materials. HOWEVER, the stunning innovation Tan adds to the story is the way he moves from those historical snapshots of the immigrant experience -- to a wildly off-kilter New York City in which the Statue of Liberty looks oddly like a pair of welcoming giants in exotic costumes. New York's pigeons become strangely beautiful flying fish. The English language of advertisements, newspaper headlines and grocery store packaging becomes a bizarrely cryptic new alphabet that we can't quite understand. Common American foods take on exotic, fanciful shapes and textures. Even ordinary American pets become exotic animals that seem to have fallen to earth from a science fiction novel. Are you glimpsing the point of this visual slight of hand? As we follow the story of this immigrant -- we SEE America through the eyes of an immigrant. The strangeness of our skylines, our symbols, our language, our foods, our pets, our architecture -- actually looks strange to us, as readers. This is what makes this book ideal for reading over and over with young readers -- spotting the dozens of subtle ways Tan twists and turns elements of the tale to help us not only empathize with the immigrant and his family -- but to actually feel his disorientation as we read the book! Some chapters of the book are very dark. As immigrants meet in this new land, across the cultural and religious chasms that may separate them, they share stories of danger and oppression in their homelands. One immigrant tells a horrifying story of a war that left him crippled and homeless. Another immigrant tells a tale of what seems to be ethnic cleansing in his homeland. Once again, Tan's imagery is rooted in stories we know -- but he enlarges and re-imagines the visual grammar of these stories until the ethnic cleansing becomes a terrifying tale of gigantic, faceless technicians with flame throwers who tromp through the streets of a village. Although the story becomes dark at several points, there is nothing in the book that is more troubling than scenes in "The Chronicles of Narnia." And each moment of darkness throws into dramatic relief a moment of great joy as the immigrants realize how much they are thankful for in their new community. There's even a strange kind of Thanksgiving dinner at one point in the book. Wherever you live in the world, as you read this, "The Arrival" is the story of someone you know -- a friend, a neighbor, a relative -- or perhaps this is your story captured vividly in a new form for a new century. ## Technical Specifications | Specification | Value | |---------------|-------| | Best Sellers Rank | #28,316 in Books ( See Top 100 in Books ) #29 in Teen & Young Adult Fiction about New Experiences (Books) #102 in Children's Fiction on Social Situations #190 in Children's New Experiences Books | | Customer Reviews | 4.8 out of 5 stars 2,506 Reviews | ## Images ![The Arrival - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/61SzTBWTohL.jpg) ## Customer Reviews ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Beautiful illustrations, very touching story. Great "coffee table" book. *by H***E on June 18, 2025* I first saw this book as part of an exhibit at the George Eastman Museum in Rochester, NY. I'm not really sure why it was there - it was sitting on a bench in one of the galleries. I leafed through it briefly - the illustrations are so beautiful that I bought two - one for me, one as a gift. It's possible to just thumb through the book and appreciate the illustrations - but it's definitely worthwhile to start at the beginning and follow the story. I may buy more to give as gifts in the future. ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Amazingly, Shaun Tan Shows Us Our Own World Through a Newcomer's Eyes *by D***M on February 5, 2008* "The Arrival" is a genre-connecting hardback picture book that took Shaun Tan four years to create based on narratives of immigrants coming to the U.S., combined with visual references he studied from antique post cards, historical photographs and even paintings and etchings by earlier artists. This is a very, very carefully designed work that may remind readers of the stunning experience the first time you read "Maus: A Survivor's Tale," the famous graphic novel about the Holocaust by Art Spiegelman. (In fact, Spiegelman's praise for "The Arrival" appears on the back cover of the book, calling this "something new and exceptionally worthy.") "The Arrival" tells the story of a young father who leaves his wife and daughter behind in their impoverished and dangerous homeland to journey to a distant city based on the New York City of an earlier era. Like millions of immigrants over the past two centuries, he is the patriarch of a family bravely going on ahead to establish a home for his family in a new world. Many of the beautifully rendered images in the book are straight out of Ellis Island historical materials. HOWEVER, the stunning innovation Tan adds to the story is the way he moves from those historical snapshots of the immigrant experience -- to a wildly off-kilter New York City in which the Statue of Liberty looks oddly like a pair of welcoming giants in exotic costumes. New York's pigeons become strangely beautiful flying fish. The English language of advertisements, newspaper headlines and grocery store packaging becomes a bizarrely cryptic new alphabet that we can't quite understand. Common American foods take on exotic, fanciful shapes and textures. Even ordinary American pets become exotic animals that seem to have fallen to earth from a science fiction novel. Are you glimpsing the point of this visual slight of hand? As we follow the story of this immigrant -- we SEE America through the eyes of an immigrant. The strangeness of our skylines, our symbols, our language, our foods, our pets, our architecture -- actually looks strange to us, as readers. This is what makes this book ideal for reading over and over with young readers -- spotting the dozens of subtle ways Tan twists and turns elements of the tale to help us not only empathize with the immigrant and his family -- but to actually feel his disorientation as we read the book! Some chapters of the book are very dark. As immigrants meet in this new land, across the cultural and religious chasms that may separate them, they share stories of danger and oppression in their homelands. One immigrant tells a horrifying story of a war that left him crippled and homeless. Another immigrant tells a tale of what seems to be ethnic cleansing in his homeland. Once again, Tan's imagery is rooted in stories we know -- but he enlarges and re-imagines the visual grammar of these stories until the ethnic cleansing becomes a terrifying tale of gigantic, faceless technicians with flame throwers who tromp through the streets of a village. Although the story becomes dark at several points, there is nothing in the book that is more troubling than scenes in "The Chronicles of Narnia." And each moment of darkness throws into dramatic relief a moment of great joy as the immigrants realize how much they are thankful for in their new community. There's even a strange kind of Thanksgiving dinner at one point in the book. Wherever you live in the world, as you read this, "The Arrival" is the story of someone you know -- a friend, a neighbor, a relative -- or perhaps this is your story captured vividly in a new form for a new century. ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Excellent graphic novel, makes you ponder the stakes for immigrants *by L***A on September 11, 2023* My husband checked this book out of our public library. He wanted the rest of the family to look at the book. Our 2 teens were busy with the start of school so I picked it up. I fell in love with the story, told entirely using pictures. No words in the entire book. I admire the art style which is a blend of richly detailed, realistic portraits of people and a sci-fi-esque highly imaginative environment. I immediately ordered a copy of the book for us and one for a friend who is an ESL teacher (English as a Second Language). Some of her kids come to America knowing zero English. What a great way to immediately show them a book with substance that seeks to show we understand a smidgen of what they are going through. Our copy will be useful for discussions with our exchange students and as an interesting, beautifully illustrated coffee table book. There are multiple things I love about this book but here are my top two: 1. As the immigrant meets people the story shifts to the new person’s immigration story. There are at least 4-5 different stories included, each touched my heart. 2. There is an underlying theme of the seasoned immigrants helping the new immigrants, passing along skills, information, directions, food—the cycle is woven throughout the pages of this book. We highly recommend this book and are looking forward to exploring more of the artist’s work. ## Frequently Bought Together - The Arrival - Tales from the Inner City - Cicada --- ## Why Shop on Desertcart? - 🛒 **Trusted by 1.3+ Million Shoppers** — Serving international shoppers since 2016 - 🌍 **Shop Globally** — Access 737+ million products across 21 categories - 💰 **No Hidden Fees** — All customs, duties, and taxes included in the price - 🔄 **15-Day Free Returns** — Hassle-free returns (30 days for PRO members) - 🔒 **Secure Payments** — Trusted payment options with buyer protection - ⭐ **TrustPilot Rated 4.5/5** — Based on 8,000+ happy customer reviews **Shop now:** [https://www.desertcart.be/products/1203990-the-arrival](https://www.desertcart.be/products/1203990-the-arrival) --- *Product available on Desertcart Belgium* *Store origin: BE* *Last updated: 2026-05-27*