Sabrina by Nick Drnaso was longlisted for the Booker prize, the first for a graphic novel, and as such received much coverage and hype. I bought a copy a couple of days ago and read it over a couple of evenings and it was an unsettling experience.
Sabrina, the titular character of the novel, is an ordinary woman, who doesn't return home one night. Over the course of a couple of weeks videos are posted online and to various media outlets showing her gruesome murder. So far so trope-y, but what follows isn't a murder mystery but more of an examination of what happens in the aftermath of such a tragic event. It is a 'state of the nation' study on the current social and political climate where truth is flexible, fake news pervades and conspiracy theories about the Deep State are bandied around as facts.
In an age when the grieving parents of the various high school massacres are accused of being actors, #MeToo survivors of being mythomaniacs and news outlets of 'lugenpresse' (lying media) who do you trust?
In Sabrina, lives are put on hold as we follow the day to day events of friends and loved ones trying to deal with the loss. It is mundane, it is boring but life must go on for those people but what toll does it take to be constantly harangued, harried and pursued by the various factions each out for their pound of flesh?
The book is an excellent look into the age of the Internet and the hollowness that social media has brought on the masses. It speaks of the situation we currently find ourselves in and is chilling in its trajectory of world news items to hot takes to conspiracy theories to old news... The daily news cycle.
The art style was not to my liking but its simplicity and flatness did give it an eerie feel as the story is king here, it all works well. The flatness become more disconcerting the further you read into the novel and by the end you feel like you’ve run a marathon… it’s exhausting and traumatic, but in the best possible way.
It’s by no means the best graphic novel I’ve read, that’d be Maus or Blankets, but Sabrina is a book that definitely deserves the attention it is getting.
