From Powells.com
Our favorite books of the year.
Staff Pick
The first graphic novel nominated for the Man Booker Prize, but don't let that put you off. Drnaso's Beverly was an odd and sweaty masterpiece, and Sabrina is too. If Chris Ware wrote a story about grief taboos, the perverse logic of false flag conspiracy theorists, and TV dinners, it might be like this. Sabrina is that good. Recommended By Mark S., Powells.com
Technically a mystery. Technically a graphic novel. But in my mind, Nick Drnaso's Sabrina occupies a category all its own, with its horrifyingly hyperrealistic story line juxtaposed with its drab and oversimplified art. Sabrina creeps up on you and will leave you with an urgent desire to get off the Internet. Recommended By Alex Y., Powells.com
Synopses & Reviews
THE FIRST GRAPHIC NOVEL NOMINATED FOR THE MAN BOOKER PRIZE!
CONSPIRACY THEORIES, BREAKDOWN, MURDER.
EVERYTHING’S GONNA BE ALL RIGHT. UNTIL IT ISN’T
How many hours of sleep did you get last night? Rate your overall mood from 1 to 5, 1 being poor. Rate your stress level from 1 to 5, 5 being severe. Are you experiencing depression or thoughts of suicide? Is there anything in your personal life that is affecting your duty?
When Sabrina disappears, an airman in the U.S. Air Force is drawn into a web of suppositions, wild theories, and outright lies. He reports to work every night in a bare, sterile fortress that serves as no protection from a situation that threatens the sanity of Teddy, his childhood friend and boyfriend of the missing woman. Sabrina's grieving sister Sandra struggles to fill her days waiting in purgatory. After a videotape surfaces, we see devastation through a cinematic lens, as true tragedy is distorted when fringe thinkers and conspiracy theorists begin to interpret events to fit their own narratives.
The follow-up to Nick Drnaso’s LA Times Book Prize winning Beverly, Sabrina depicts a modern world devoid of personal interaction and responsibility, where relationships are stripped of intimacy through glowing computer screens. An indictment of our modern state, Drnaso contemplates the dangers of a fake news climate. Timely and articulate, Sabrina leaves you gutted, searching for meaning in the aftermath of disaster.
Review
"When we look back on the serious cultural products of this stretch of history where media has made everyone crazy and driven a wedge between our public selves and our private humanity, Sabrina is likely to be a touchstone." Forbes
Review
"Nick Drnaso is one of the most ambitious, singular cartoonists to emerge in recent years, and his dedication to novelistic fiction is an inspiration. Incisive, chilling, and completely unpredictable, Sabrina demonstrates the inexplicable power of comics at their best." Adrian Tomine, Killing and Dying
Review
"A profoundly American nightmare... The fictional killing in Sabrina is disturbing, but Drnaso doesn’t fixate on the gore or the culprit; he’s more concerned with how the public claims and consumes it, spinning out morbid fantasies with impunity... It’s a shattering work of art." New York Times
Review
"This maestro of minimalism manages to convey the horror of senseless murder with nothing but a lumpy sheet and motionless red water in a bathtub." NPR
Review
"Sabrina is an artful masterwork, easily already one of the top books of the summer and demanding to be read." Under The Radar
Review
"Nick Drnaso's Sabrina is the best book — in any medium — I have read about our current moment. It is a masterpiece, beautifully written and drawn, possessing all the political power of polemic and yet simultaneously all the delicacy of truly great art. It scared me. I loved it." Zadie Smith
Review
"Nick Drnaso's Sabrina is full of ominous, dead-quiet catastrophe. The faces of his stoic characters are as enigmatic as the Mona Lisa's, as they confront modern terror with blank, fathomless smirks. Never sentimental or satirical (we've all had enough of that), Drnaso chronicles the American climate of fear, isolation, mainstream misinformation, and fringe paranoia with perfect lucidity. Sabrina steeps the mundane in shadowy mystery and grand tragedy; fans of Chris Ware, Todd Solondz, and Don DeLillo should read this immediately." Tony Tulathimutte
Synopsis
THE FIRST EVER GRAPHIC NOVEL NOMINATED FOR THE MAN BOOKER PRIZE A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK ON 20 BEST OF 2018 LISTS INCLUDING THE WASHINGTON POST, NPR, NEWSWEEK, AND THE GUARDIAN
"Sabrina is the intimate story of one man's suffering, but it also captures the political nihilism of the social-media era--a time when a President can dismiss the murder of a journalist by saying of the perpetrator, "Maybe he did. Maybe he didn't."
--DT Max, The New Yorker
Conspiracy theories, breakdown, murder: Everything's gonna be all right--until it isn't
When Sabrina disappears, an airman in the U.S. Air Force is drawn into a web of suppositions, wild theories, and outright lies. He reports to work every night in a bare, sterile fortress that serves as no protection from a situation that threatens the sanity of Teddy, his childhood friend and the boyfriend of the missing woman. Sabrina's grieving sister, Sandra, struggles to fill her days as she waits in purgatory. After a videotape surfaces, we see devastation through a cinematic lens, as true tragedy is distorted when fringe thinkers and conspiracy theorists begin to interpret events to fit their own narratives.
The follow-up to Nick Drnaso's Beverly, winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, Sabrina depicts a modern world devoid of personal interaction and responsibility, where relationships are stripped of intimacy through glowing computer screens. Presenting an indictment of our modern state, Drnaso contemplates the dangers of a fake-news climate. Timely and articulate, Sabrina leaves you gutted, searching for meaning in the aftermath of disaster.
About the Author
Nick Drnaso was born in 1989 in Palos Hills, Illinois. His debut graphic novel, Beverly, received the LA Times Book prize for Best Graphic Novel. He has contributed to several comics anthologies, self-published a handful of comics, been nominated for three Ignatz Awards, and co-edited the second and third issue of Linework, Columbia College's annual comic anthology. Drnaso lives in Chicago, where he works as a cartoonist and illustrator.