︎Their life options are much different but also deeply echo in the essence. Sometimes they both feel their lives are incomplete. But it is the people they met who complete their world.
Keywords  fiction based on real life stories · life options  · people is the world · poetic ·  gatefold format

Here & There unfolds two protagonists’ life stories which are quite different but also deeply echoed. The book begins by showing how extremely different their life options are: one never moved and the other one never settled. The purposely designed symmetrical compositions and equaled texts build up the connection between the two characters, leading readers to think about the similarities between them. As the story moving on, the readers will realize no matter how different their lived are, they share a similar feeling of loss: sometimes they feel so distancing from the world and their lives are incomplete. 

But, please do not feel pity for them. They also have their moments of contentment:  the people they met  complete their lives. It is the people who fulfill their relation with the world.

The idea of Here & There is based on two persons I met in the real world. Their experiences show me a broad spectrum of life options. More importantly, their stories comfort me that in the end we people can be connected closely as long as we want. 

This book is made during my MA, unpunlished. It is selected to the dPICTUS unpublished picturebook showcase 2021, 17 publisher votes, the jury’s favorites shortlist.

Further information
 

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All rights reserved. No part of these pages may be used for any purpose unless explicit authorized by Thea Lu.

The cover illustration is split into two parts by the title, representing the two parallel stories inside.
Opening the book, you will find two stories are bound respectively on the left and the right, unfolding two protagonists’ life stories in parallel.
Their life choices are quite different but also deeply echo each other. They share the same longings and taste happiness for the same reason. I adopt this abnormal format because I believe it can best bring out the meaning to the readers. The book starts by showing how different the two protagonists’ lives are: one never moved and lives like a rooted oak tree, but another one never settled and lives like a nomadic gull.   But In the images, I drafted the spreads on each side with the mirrored composition, implying their life similarities which to be revealed later in the book.The echoed compositions and texts build up the connection between their two lives, page by page.
In the middle of the book, there are two side-by-side spreads, printed with exactly the same texts: 
“In moment like this, he feels himself so distancing from the world.” ︎︎︎︎︎︎Thanks to the gatefold format, there are two-connected spreads at the end of the book. On this page,  two spreads on each side share one text: “In a moment like this, he feels himself so close to the world”. Then the story ends at this sentimental climax.