Tales from Outer Suburbia

Shaun Tan (author/illus)

Allen & Unwin, Australia: 2009; 92pp

ISBN: 9781741149173

Genres: humour, picture book, short stories, surreal

Issues: curiosity, perspective, imagination

Winner CBCA Book of the Year (Older Readers) 2009

Have you ever wondered about how we see our lives? Is what we see what is really happening or is there some stranger, wilder, weirder world that we are somehow... missing? Shaun Tan certainly think so.

Here are fifteen short stories that hint at things unseen. Memories of the water buffalo that used to live at the end of the street and give unspoken directions: ‘whenever we had followed his pointy hoof we'd always been surprised, relieved and delighted at what we found.' (p6) The remarkable memento left by Eric, the ‘foreign exchange student' who left with so little farewell. The strange Japanese ‘diver' two friends leave stranded on a neighbour's doorstep, producing a surprising change in her personality. The remarkable occurrence of a dugong stranded on a suburban lawn and grandpa's story of the mysterious and difficult journey of discovery that used to be a requirement for marriage. There are the strange stick figures that silently haunt the bustops and carparks of suburban streets and the many uses for backyard ballistic missiles. Best of all, perhaps, is the curious story of what happens to all the poems people write but don't want anybody else to read: ‘A vast accumulation of papery bits that ultimately takes to the air, levitating by the sheer force of unspoken emotion. It floats gently above suburban rooftops when everybody is asleep, inspiring lonely dogs to bark in the middle of the night.' (p31)

This is a haunting creation from a very interesting mind. The book design is remarkable - credit must be given here to Inari Kiuru who worked with Tan on layout, font and typography - and essential to the work's power. Tan's stories are Picasso line drawings in prose - meanings are in the spaces, the unstated, the hidden and unmentioned. In those pauses the characters take a breath and grow, revealing their depth and mystery. Despite its length, this is a true picture book, where the illustrations are essential to the reader's engagement with and understanding of the stories. Worked in a wide variety of media, both colour and black and white, they show the breadth of Tan's capacity as an artist as well as carrying his signature surrealism.

This is a truly remarkable book, one to be revisited many times by readers from thirteen to one hundred and thirty.