The Arrival (2006)

Won: Book of the Year, NSW Premier's Literary Awards, 2007. A book with no words at all took the overall prize at one of Australia's leading literary awards. Shaun Tan's wordless graphic novel follows a man who leaves his family to build a life in a strange new country, where the writing, the animals and even the buildings are invented, so the reader feels the immigrant's confusion firsthand. Its sepia pages look like an old photo album. Allow an hour and read it slowly; it works as well for adults as for the teenagers it is often given to.