I have to thank fellow bookseller Nicole for introducing me to this stunning book. The technical skill left me astonished. I wanted a bench, as though in a museum, to sit and quietly take in each page of black-and-white pen-and-ink line drawings. Van den Ende's debut is a wordless story of a small paper boat's epic journey across a vast and fathomless ocean. It teems with myriad flora and fauna that reside somewhere between fairy tale and reality. It intrigues. It beguiles. An elegant testament to solitude, strength, and bravery.
"Wonderfully strange and strangely wonderful, Peter Van den Ende''s Wanderer is an epic dream captured in superbly meticulous detail."—Shaun Tan
As with Shaun Tan''s The Arrival, it gives us collective goosebumps to introduce the singular talent and imagination of Peter Van den Ende to North America. Without a word, and with Escher-like precision, Van den Ende presents one little paper boat''s journey across the ocean, past reefs and between icebergs, through schools of fish, swaying water plants, and terrifying sea monsters. The little boat is all alone, and while its aloneness gives it the chance to wonder at the fairy-tale world above and below the waves uninterrupted, that also means it must save itself when it storms. And so it does. We hope that readers young and old will find the strength and inspiration that we did in this quietly powerful story about growing, learning, and life''s ups and downs.
About the Author
The Wanderer is Peter Van den Ende''s remarkable debut as a picture book artist. When he''s not drawing, he works as a nature guide in the Cayman Islands. The beauty of the sea was his source of inspiration for his wonderful wordless story.
