#53 of 1001 · September 22, 2020

If you’re searching for a profoundly moving experience, I encourage you to get your hands on a copy of The Red Tree by the endlessly inventive @shauncytan. The second-person text acknowledges a series of universal discomforts and melancholies, accompanied by extraordinary vignettes that probe the bleak corners of a faintly quirky dystopia: A dire warning of nightmarish things to come? The externalization of a lonely human’s inner suffering? Perhaps both. The unnamed protagonist’s indifference to the heightened imagery of the daily routine suggests numbness, a quiet acceptance of the unbalanced and unforgiving world. And yet...even in our moments of deepest despair, Tan quietly reveals through visual metaphor, there may be a glimmer of sweet hope waiting for us when we least expect it. #shauntan #theredtree #redtree #book #books #childrensbooks #beautifulbook #beautifulbooks #beautifulbookcover #beautifulbookcovers #picturebook #picturebooks #picturebookillustration #picturebookillustrations #picturebookart #classicchildrensbooks #childrensbookillustration #childrensliterature #illustration #kidlit #kidsbooks #bookworm #booklover #booklovers #bibliophile #bookstagram #bookstagrammer #bookstagrammers #instabook #instabooks