Griffin and Sabine

Griffin and Sabine
Griffin and Sabine
(1) 2 shops 1 products

Detailed product description

9780877017882

Don't miss The Pharos Gate, the final volume in the Griffin & Sabine story. Published simultaneously with the 25th-anniversary edition of Griffin & Sabine, the book finally shares what happened to the lovers. Griffin: It's good to get in touch with you at last. Could I have one of your fish postcards? I think you were right—the wine glass has more impact than the cup. –Sabine But Griffin had never met a woman named Sabine. How did she know him? How did she know his artwork? Who is she? Thus begins the strange and intriguing correspondence of Griffin and Sabine. And since each letter must be pulled from its own envelope, the reader has the delightful, forbidden sensation of reading someone else's mail. Griffin & Sabine is like no other illustrated novel: appealing to the poet and artist in everyone and sure to inspire a renaissance in the fine art of letter-writing, it tells an extraordinary story in an extraordinary way.

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Last updated: 2024-02-20 21:54:57
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Manufacturer -
Brand Nick Bantock
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Additional product information

Product Id 1078257
User Reviews and Ratings 3 (1 ratings) 3 out of 5 stars
UPC 713826007886

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Griffin and Sabine
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Top User Reviews and Ratings

From my bookcrossing s...
(5)
Reviewed in the USA on 2007-02-19T16:00:00

From my bookcrossing shelf: Finally got round to reading this. Loved it! I'm now going to read the other two books in the series before I go to bed tonight. Their onward path is already sketched out. The impact of this book is astonishing. Objectively, not a great deal happens in this first volume, but the reader feels suddenly thrust into a different reality. This is due partly to the sumptuous surrealist artwork, but also to the (no doubt expensive) technique of presenting the text in real postcards and letters - in envelopes attached to the page! There is an immediacy and intimacy in reading what appears to be handwritten private letters from a friend. One almost becomes a character in the story. Delicious! Uncanny!

miketroll . Review provider: walmart.com
I found the first thre...
(5)
Reviewed in the USA on 2008-09-02T17:00:00

I found the first three books in this story on a coffee table of a friend of a friend in a strange city some years ago. I was transported to a magical place which I have never felt the need to fully shake off . Bantock is an addiction. Reading his works is like visiting dreamland, although I am awake. If you can remember your younger self and the way a book could become the whole of the world while in it , these are an extension of that place.

misselainey . Review provider: walmart.com
I read this slim littl...
(5)
Reviewed in the USA on 2016-01-26T16:00:00

I read this slim little novella when it first came out (and have a first edition). I was completely captivated and was thrilled that the feeling remains the same on my second reading. Griffin Moss is an artist living in London. He produces a series of postcards that are beautifully illustrated with his artwork. One day he receives a cryptic postcard from Sabine Strohem, a woman living in the South Pacific island nation of Sicmon Islands. She asks him to send a particular postcard, and mentions an earlier version. But how could she know about that earlier version? Griffin never showed it to anyone and changed the design before ever producing the cards. Thus begins an extraordinary correspondence between these two souls. Sabine explains that she has been seeing visions of his art for many years, though she cannot really explain why or how. He confesses he has felt "watched" but put it down to paranoia; now he feels exhilarated to have found her. The reader feels as if she is eavesdropping on a particularly intimate exchange between two lovers as they learn more about each other and pour their hearts out in their letters and cards to one another. The illustrations begin as beautiful, colorful, drawings; Griffin's are whimsical (a kangaroo in a red hat); Sabine's focus on the island fauna. But as their correspondence continues the drawings become ever more fantastical and disturbing, hinting at madness and violence. The ending takes the reader by surprise, and leaves one hanging, wanting more.

BookConcierge . Review provider: walmart.com
An exquisite little bo...
(5)
Reviewed in the USA on 2012-01-15T16:00:00

An exquisite little book of illustrated postcards and letters (including the actual letters in envelopes), which tells of the first correspondence between two artists, one of whom has been dreaming the other's art for years. Taking the letters out of the envelopes, unfolding and reading them, and returning them lends an intimacy to the story which lingers long after. Simply beautiful, and a unique experience.

auntmarge64 . Review provider: walmart.com
This gets five stars b...
(5)
Reviewed in the USA on 2011-06-29T17:00:00

This gets five stars because of the original conception and beauty of the visual execution--even though if this were text only I doubt it would impress. A friend of mine mentioned the book and when I confessed I had never heard of it raved about it. It's a funny little book. Less than fifty pages, it's the correspondence between two artists, Sabine from the South Seas and Griffin of London. This is the text of the first letter, from Sabine to Griffin: It's good to get in touch with you at last. Could I have one of your fish postcards? I think you were right--the wine glass has more impact than the cup. Just one thing--Griffin had never met her before. There are 19 pieces of correspondence, all short, and as a story this isn't all that strong. The romantic aspect, for one, is beyond rushed. But the experience of the book is another matter. The postcards, even the stamps of the South Sea Island, the decoration on the envelopes, are lovely, several are surreal and Dali-esque. And the letters aren't simply text on a page. Instead, an envelope is glued to the page. You open the flap and slip out the one-page letter and read. There's something about the experience of holding the letter in your hand and reading it that can't be captured by its contents. So, for prose and story, maybe I'd give it a two. But for the experience of this...what? Pop-up book for adults? I'm going to give it five stars. I was enchanted, even if I doubt I'll ever get the other books in the series.

LisaMaria_C . Review provider: walmart.com
An exquisite little bo...
(5)
Reviewed in the USA on 2012-01-15T16:00:00

An exquisite little book of illustrated postcards and letters (including the actual letters in envelopes), which tells of the first correspondence between two artists, one of whom has been dreaming the other's art for years. Taking the letters out of the envelopes, unfolding and reading them, and returning them lends an intimacy to the story which lingers long after. Simply beautiful, and a unique experience.

auntmarge64 . Review provider: walmart.com
Gorgeous artwork and w...
(5)
Reviewed in the USA on 2007-09-18T17:00:00

Gorgeous artwork and wonderful, interactive reading experience. The first in a series, this is a love story told in letters and postcards...actual letters, since you remove them from their envelopes to read them. It's more of an experience than just a read! Enjoyed immensely.

TheScrappyCat . Review provider: walmart.com
An interesting sort of...
(5)
Reviewed in the USA on 2014-12-31T16:00:00

An interesting sort of books these days are those with something more than printed words on the page. These books have nooks and crannies for peeks into some secret worlds. Sometimes they have strange and bizarre art work. I am not talking about graphic novels. Nick Bantock has created a series of four books beginning with < i>Griffin and Sabine< /i>. Griffin receives a strange and beautifully decorated post card with an exotic postmark from Sabine. Naturally intrigued, he writes back and thus begins a correspondence every bit as strange, beautiful, and exotic as the first post card. Some pages have envelopes attached. Lifting the flap reveals a folded letter. This window into the mysterious Sabine made me feel as though I had eavesdropped on a growing romance. The story takes numerous twists and turns over the three volumes which follow, including, < i>Sabine's Notebook, The Gryphon,< /i> and < i>The Golden Mean< /i>. They all take the story on twists and turns around the globe with a quite mysterious ending. Haruki Murakami adds to this genre with < i>The Strange Library< /i>. This unusual volume has flaps which fold over the top and bottom, and it only needs a wax seal to complete the strangeness of this story. A child who loves books, returns a few to the local library with the intention of borrowing several others. Then a slightly strange and scary man invites the boy to look at some interesting books he might like in Room 107 in the basement of the library. The boy is locked in a room with four folio sized books about taxation in the ottoman empire - a topic he inquired about for his next borrowings. The librarian tells him he must memorize all four volumes, or he would suffer unspeakable pains. A friendly jailer visits him and fills in some information, but he encourages the boy to memorize if her ever wants to escape Room 107. The a mysterious, ethereal young girl approaches and offers a means of escape. Together these three attempt to escape this nightmare. The young boy who narrates the story frets about his mother who expects him home for dinner and his pet starling. The ghostly girl delivers gourmet meals to the boy, and another weird character, the "Sheepman" brings donuts for an afternoon snack. The circulation librarian checks in his returned unusual books - < i>How to Build a Submarine< /i> and < i>Memoirs of a Shepherd< /i>. The woman directs him to the basement and room 107. In his typical style, Murakami describes the strange librarian. "A little old man sat behind a little old desk in the middle of the room. Tiny black spots dotted his face like a swarm of flies. The old man was bald and wore thick lenses. His baldness looked incomplete; he had frizzy white hairs plastered against both sides of his head. It looked like a mountain after a big forest fire. // 'Welcome my boy, [...] How may I be of assistance?' [...] 'I want to learn how taxes were collected in the ottoman Empire'" (Part 2, no pagination). Although not described as YA fiction, this tale seems appropriate for older children. All these books are wonderfully creative excursions into an uncommon literary genre. They offer a pleasant afternoon of reading. 5 stars

rmckeown . Review provider: walmart.com
An unusual love story,...
(4)
Reviewed in the USA on 2013-10-20T17:00:00

An unusual love story, with possibilities of darkness lingering at the back of it. My first look at this book enchanted me. The artwork and illustrations deserve many hours of gazing. The style of a story through correspondence is mesmerizing. What has made me a definite fan however, is the concise plot and the twist. I love how that was accomplished so smoothly and neatly.

MrsLee . Review provider: walmart.com
Ive been waiting to r...
(2)
Reviewed in the USA on 2010-01-14T16:00:00

I've been waiting to read this one for years, the price my only detraction. I originally fell in love with Nick Bantok's work through his amazing "The Museum At Purgatory". He's something of a blend of a writer and artist, creating stories he augments with ephemera (artwork, collages, bric-a-brac) that's tangible (you can touch and play with it, as it were). Griffin & Sabine is his more lauded work, telling the story of two lovers who've never met and only communicate through postcards and letters (the letters being folded into envelopes attached to the page, so you can take them out and read them). I was seriously disappointed. The story is flat, neither character is particularly likable (not that either is necessarily unlikable), and the whole books takes about ten minutes to get through. And it ends in such a way that, if you want to know what happens next, you'll have to go out and spend more money on yet another 10-minute romp through disappointment.

9days . Review provider: walmart.com

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