Tales from the Inner City (Walker Studio) Paperback – 6 Jan. 2022

I love Shaun's work, but this is my favourite to date. I loved Rules of Summer but was personally a bit disappointed by The Rabbits and Cicada (find it hard to know what to expect just from looking online) but this was incredible. Loads of content, incredible illustrations and great accompanying stories. Can't recommend more highly if you're a fan of his work.

I love everything Shaun Tan creates, and this is no exception. Fantastically fantastic and surreal to get deep messages across. And gorgeous to look at!

I love Shaun Tan - In my eyes the man can do no wrong. Anyone who is familiar with his book 'Tales from outer suburbia' will see some similarities in this. Short, somewhat surreal tales about animals and our relationship with them. I have to say most of them have brought me to tears, the one about the pig is just heartbreaking and forces you to focus on the way animals are treated by humans and the way we, as children, question these practices and yet as adults we learn to turn a blind eye. Another tale that stands out to me is the one about mans relationship with dogs - through several beautiful illustrations Shaun shows that no matter where in the world you may live or what era, dog and man have always shared a connection that goes beyond time and space. In short this is another wonderful book - but be warned, get your tissues ready.

A beautifully illustrated book, interesting short stories which break away from traditional story telling styles.

Loads of great stories that’ll put you in a good mood. I don’t think I’ll forget a single one, they’re all good.

This book is peculiar, intelligent and beautiful all in one. It consists of a number of different short tales, each from a different perspective and featuring a different animal, and issue, in each. There are absolutely stunning illustrations throughout, sometimes pages at a time - this method of showing rather than telling really worked for me - which accompany each story. Some of the illustrations are eerie, dark and telling while others are really beautiful and full of colour; the illustrations are so fantastic that this book could have had no text whatsoever and still I would have understood the message.Some of the stories are particularly dark - for example one story featuring a pig was so troubling that I had to have a break before continuing. The message was loud: we as humans often fall into the habit of shutting the door, closing our eyes and ignoring the problem (particularly when it comes to animals and the meat industry) because if we can't see the suffering, pain or understanding of the animal then did it really happen? There are a handful of stories with similarly dark but important messages at the forefront.However, other stories are cleverly witty and light-hearted (although perhaps this is open to interpretation) - a story about a cat who has many homes really touched me. It was both sad and warm, which is not easy to capture in only a few pages. I'm sure my cat has at least three other houses he lives in!This is a peculiar book in places though. A number of the stories are so abstract or erratic that they can feel odd, silly or just difficult to understand what the key message was for. Equally, I don't think there always needs to be a message behind a story, although I really appreciate what the author has tried to do here and I hope more people listen.I guess that's the thing about this book that really works - if you're open to interpreting the hidden , or not so hidden, meanings and choose to see what the author wants you to appreciate then I think this book has the potential to change opinions and make improvements to, at the very least, fundamental opinions on animals and respecting the world we live in.ARC provided free from the publishers in exchange for an honest review.

a really great collection of stories, accompanied by wonderful illustrations

very nice illustrations, very beautiful product