THE RETURN

A young adult comes home in Chernysheva’s uplifting wordless picture book.

A lone house stands beside an outstretched tree in a vast, empty field. The light-skinned traveler boards a yellow bus, its driver just a mere shadow. The yellow bus makes its way through the crowded streets of Moscow as buildings and churches loom overhead in a mishmash of lines and blank spaces. On and on the bus goes until it deposits the traveler onto that vast, empty field to make the way to the house, where a small figure tends the garden. The gardener—a parent or grandparent, perhaps—looks up. The giant traveler towers over the minuscule gardener in a series of double-page spreads that play with space and perspective in unusual ways. Chernysheva’s plain, mostly colorless artwork maintains a focus on the long journey and eventual reunion thanks to the book’s languid pace. Color (primarily red and yellow) emerges during seemingly minor yet significant moments, drawing attention to each character’s love for the other. A deep embrace and a sweet kiss to the cheek cement the relationship between the two adults. The old gardener stirs up a pot of warm stew, and the traveler (now the size of a child) sits down amid the garden.

As comforting as a home-cooked meal.