Griffin & Sabine Series by Nick Bantock

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. —SabineBut 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... moreGriffin: 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. —SabineBut 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. less

Griffin Foolish man. You cannot turn me into a phantom because you are frightened. You do not dismiss a muse at a whim. If you will not join me—then I will come to you. Sabine Sabine was supposed to be imaginary, a friend and lover that Griffin had created to soothe his loneliness. But she threatens to become embodied—to appear on his doorstep, in fact. So he runs. Faced with the terrifying prospect of meeting his own fictional character, Griffin runs... moreGriffin Foolish man. You cannot turn me into a phantom because you are frightened. You do not dismiss a muse at a whim. If you will not join me—then I will come to you. Sabine Sabine was supposed to be imaginary, a friend and lover that Griffin had created to soothe his loneliness. But she threatens to become embodied—to appear on his doorstep, in fact. So he runs. Faced with the terrifying prospect of meeting his own fictional character, Griffin runs. His journey begins conventionally—tracing a course through Europe and the Mediterranean—but slowly Griffin begins to realize that he is traveling backward in time, drifting through layers of dead civilizations and his own soul. His precarious link to reality is the possibly unreal Sabine, who is living in his house in London and keeping a notebook of his letters and her responses. Once again, the story is told in strangely beautiful postcards and richly decorated letters that must actually be removed from their envelopes to be read. But Sabine's Notebook is also a sketchbook and a diary, filled with her delicately macabre drawings and notations, adding yet another layer to the visual intrigue that haunted readers of Griffin & Sabine and welcoming new readers to an even more complex and mysterious world. less

I received your Paris card. I waited but you did not return the 23rd. I waited until the 31st, but you did not return. What happened? Where are you? —Sabine Sabine's Notebook ended with a disturbing disclosure—Griffin and Sabine had somehow eluded each other once again. The Golden Mean beings with an even more disturbing development: I was sure I understood. Yet you were not here when I returned and there was no sign that you ever had been here.. moreI received your Paris card. I waited but you did not return the 23rd. I waited until the 31st, but you did not return. What happened? Where are you? —Sabine Sabine's Notebook ended with a disturbing disclosure—Griffin and Sabine had somehow eluded each other once again. The Golden Mean beings with an even more disturbing development: I was sure I understood. Yet you were not here when I returned and there was no sign that you ever had been here... Today comes your card saying you were in this house for three days after my return. I am bewildered... —Griffin It seems that each cannot exist in the presence of the other. Yet neither can continue without the presence of the other. And so, in this final volume of the Griffin & Sabine trilogy, they struggle against the mysterious forces that keep them apart. Time is running out: Sabine's crystalline visions of Griffin's artwork grow cloudy and dim, and a threatening stranger begins to appear everywhere she goes. The Golden Mean is the tale of Griffin and Sabine's journey towards one another, sometimes dreamy, sometimes desperate, sometimes nightmarish. The golden mean—the harmony of perfect balance—is what they seek in the haunting conclusion of this extraordinary correspondence. Told in the compelling style of the first two best-selling volumes of the trilogy, The Golden Mean allows readers to open richly decorated envelopes and draw forth intricately illustrated letters, to decipher the quirky handwritten postcards with their macabre and magical artwork, to indulge, in other words, in the wonderfully illicit activity of reading someone else's mail. less