Story in Review: The Saga of Griffin & Sabine

Some of my favorite stories are ones that I stumbled upon in used bookstores.

Completely unaware of their contents – or even their existence, I’ve picked up books that just felt like they would be good ones.

The cover might have drawn me in, like with the The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern: reds and whites against a black jacket.

Or maybe it was the title: words that held just enough ache and promise to make me wonder. That’s how I picked up The Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford.

And sometimes, I pick one up because it is so out of the ordinary that I just have to read it. This was the case with Griffin & Sabine and Sabine’s Notebook by Nick Bantock. We were killing time in Jackson, Wyoming and the books happened to be sitting on a rack at the end of a row of fiction, and as soon as I opened to the first page I knew that this volume would be such a different kind of book that I had to take it home with me.

You see, the story of Griffin and Sabine is not just a story: it is a piece of art.

The story, at least in the first two books, is told entirely in postcards and letters between the only two “speaking” characters in the work. And each of the cards and letters are painstakingly drawn and lettered by the author and artist, Bantock. From cover to cover, the breadth of Bantock’s genius spills across the pages, picture after picture and note after note, creating not only a story, but an arresting mystery as well. I just cannot describe it, so see for yourself:

I have decided that this book is truly a one-of-a-kind reading endeavor, and I am quite smitten. Now I have to rush out and find the third installment of the trilogy, The Golden Mean: In Which the Extraordinary Correspondence of Griffin & Sabine Concludes. Because of course, the bookstore only had books one and two, and now I must wait in agony to read the conclusion.

What made this a good story? The execution. Bantock has not only written a story that involves characters trading correspondence, but has created that correspondence and allowed the reader to actually see what the words on the page look like exactly as him characters did. It is brilliant.

What could have made it a better story? I cannot think of a single thing. Truly.

Have you read any of Griffin & Sabine‘s story?  What did you think?

Disclosure of Material Connection: Some of the links in the post above are “affiliate links.” This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission. Regardless, I only recommend stuff that is good! I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”