Tales from Outer Suburbia

By Shaun Tan,

Book cover of Tales from Outer Suburbia

Book description

Do you remember the water buffalo at the end of our street? Or the deep-sea diver we found near the underpass? Do you know why dogs bark in the middle of the night?Shaun Tan reveals the quiet mysteries of everyday life: homemade pets, dangerous weddings, stranded sea mammals, tiny exchange…

When you buy books, we may earn a commission that helps keep our lights on (or join the rebellion as a member).

Why read it?

1 author picked Tales from Outer Suburbia as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Shaun Tan is an artist and writer, and an Oscar winner to boot, and I love the dazzling originality and quirkiness of his work. This one’s on my list because it includes the (very) short story "The Nameless Holiday". Which is not at all about Christmas. But sort of is, in an opposite-of-Christmas sort of way. (No spoilers - you really have to read it to see what I mean.) Anyway, late December always feels like a brilliant time to read it again. Another one I go back to every year. 

If you love Tales from Outer Suburbia...

Ad

Book cover of Tap Dancing on Everest: A Young Doctor's Unlikely Adventure

Tap Dancing on Everest by Mimi Zieman,

Tap Dancing on Everest, part coming-of-age memoir, part true-survival adventure story, is about a young medical student, the daughter of a Holocaust survivor raised in N.Y.C., who battles self-doubt to serve as the doctor—and only woman—on a remote Everest climb in Tibet.

The team attempts a new route up…

Want books like Tales from Outer Suburbia?

Our community of 12,000+ authors has personally recommended 95 books like Tales from Outer Suburbia.

Browse books like Tales from Outer Suburbia

Book cover of A Child's Christmas in Wales
Book cover of Envious Casca
Book cover of The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle

Share your top 3 reads of 2024!

And get a beautiful page showing off your 3 favorite reads.

1,907

readers submitted
so far, will you?

Ad

📚 If you like Tales from Outer Suburbia, you might also like...

Book cover of The Flight to Brassbright

The Flight to Brassbright by Lori Alden Holuta,

Constance is a wild, stubborn young girl growing up poor in a small industrial town in the late 1800's. Beneath her thread-worn exterior beats the heart of a dreamer and a wordsmith. But at age twelve, she’s orphaned. Running away to join the circus—like kids do in adventure books—seems like…

Book cover of The Gates of Polished Horn

The Gates of Polished Horn by Mark A. Rayner,

What happens when you’re face-to-face with a truth that shakes you? Do you accept it, or pretend it was never there?

Award-winning author Mark A. Rayner smudges the lines between realist and fabulist, literary and speculative in this collection of stories that examines this question—what Homer called passing through The…

5 book lists we think you will like!

Interested in reindeer, Christmas, and presidential biography?

Reindeer 20 books
Christmas 274 books