Sabrina became the first graphic novel to be longlisted for the Booker Prize. Nick Drnaso’s book was included on the 2018 longlist, marking a major expansion of what the prize’s judges considered literary fiction.
The story follows the aftermath of Sabrina’s disappearance, as her sister Sandra and Sandra’s boyfriend Teddy struggle with grief, uncertainty and the public appetite for shocking news. Drnaso presents the material through restrained drawings, clipped dialogue and deliberately muted emotional expression.
Its Booker recognition was significant because graphic novels had often been treated as a separate literary category, even though the form combines visual composition, pacing and written narrative. Sabrina’s inclusion showed that a work need not resemble a conventional prose novel to meet the prize’s standard for sustained fiction.
A common mistake is to call Sabrina the first graphic novel to win the Booker. It was longlisted, not shortlisted or victorious. It remains the first and, according to Booker materials, the only graphic novel nominated for the prize so far.