Old as Stone, Hard as Rock - by Alessandro Sanna (Hardcover)

About the Book

A wordless picture book about human destruction throughout the ages from the perspective of a stone.

Book Synopsis

From acclaimed Italian artist Alessandro Sanna, an astonishing wordless series of paintings about humans, inhumanity, and war that also contemplates the creative and destructive power of our hands.

Selected as one of Kirkus Reviews's "Must-Read Spring Highlights"

A stone falls to the Earth. It picks up speed, rolling down the steep side of a mountain until it comes to rest in an empty plain. But the plain won't remain empty for long: out of the shadows emerge two figures, who immediately start to grapple, using that very stone as a weapon to kill.

But those same hands, our human hands, holding the same weight of stone, also shape and forge, chisel and build, creating as they destroy, rendering beauty and violence alike. What is the relationship of those twin impulses? In these pages, artist Alessandaro Sanna uses the shaping force of his hands to explore the seemingly endless, perversely steadfast human capacity for destruction. Unflinchingly tracing humanity's long history of war, from the havoc of armies on horseback, to the violence of the conquistadores, to the carnage of the First World War, to the ghastly terror of the atomic bomb, and the cruel, shockingly intentional attack on the Twin Towers, Sanna records our compulsion to destroy. The hands mold clay, streak color across a sky, define a world, give beauty to the eye; and yet fires burn, an acrid smell arises, smoke blots out the sun. For what and why?

Includes an introduction from esteemed poet and scholar Ammiel Alcalay, as well as an artist's note.

Review Quotes

Selected as one of Kirkus's "Must-Read Spring Highlights!" "Readers who pick up this exquisite visual meditation on war will immediately notice the pages' beautifully tactile nature; their heft and texture add depth to Sanna's rich, vibrant paintings. Hands accustomed to plastic devices will engage with this volume in ways reminiscent of both the intensely physical nature of early childhood reading and the bygone days of printing on cotton rag paper."--Laura Simeon, Young Readers' Editor, Kirkus Reviews

STARRED REVIEW! ★ "In this translated work, an Italian artist grapples with the intractability of war as part of the human condition... Readers witness an increasing scale and scope of conflict and violence through illustrations that at times feel universal and at others reference iconic, recognizable scenes from diverse times and places... Painterly, atmospheric backgrounds add perspective and a stark elegance, accentuating the bleak solemnity. The montaged compositions occasionally evoke Peter Sis' art and Shaun Tan's The Arrival. A haunting, poetic visual interpretation of one of humanity's existential dilemmas."

--Kirkus Reviews

"The story tracks both creative and destructive impulses over the course of human history, with a lens of getting to the point of war."--Betsy Bird, A Fuse #8 Production (A School Library Journal blog)

About the Author

Born in 1975, Alessandro Sanna is considered one of Italy's leading contemporary illustrators. He has earned wide recognition across Europe as an illustrator and author, and his work has appeared in the New York Times Book Review and The New Yorker. He is a prolific and popular creator of illustrated books for children and readers of all ages, including The River, Pinocchio: The Origin Story, and Crescendo, and has received many awards and had many exhibitions. He lives and works in Mantua, Italy.