The Viewer

Inside, the box was crammed with treasures, each more intriguing than the last ... his eyes glistened with delight at the promise these wonders held ... An intricate, fantastical tale for young teens, written by Gary Crew, four-time winner of the CBC Book of the Year Award, and illustrated by Shaun Tan, winner of the Kate Greenaway Medal 2020. Young Tristan, a curious boy who rescues all sorts of objects from the rubbish dump, finds an old Viewmaster in its elaborate box, complete with a set of disks. He finds that these represent the ages of humankind, seen as a cyclical structure in which patterns of growth and decay are repeated. Tristan becomes more and more drawn in to the world of the disks, and eventually disappears. The book is full of metaphors and symbols of seeing and watching, circularity and never-endingness, in a complex, fantastical tale, which was Shaun Tan's first picture book.