Griffin and Sabine and Sabine’s Notebook by Nick Bantock

I pulled two more books from my shelf to reread, and it was a treat.  Griffin and Sabine know each other only through letters and postcards.  Their odd correspondence begins when Griffin, who lives in London, receives a note from Sabine requesting one of Griffin’s fish postcards.  Griffin is an artist who sells his own original postcards.  He doesn’t recognize Sabine’s name or address, but she comments on his decision to put a wine glass rather than a cup in the picture on the card.  How did she know?  As it turns out, Sabine has a mysterious bond with Griffin that allows her to see him create his art.  Sabine, like Griffin, is an artist; she designs stamps for Katin, the South Pacific island where she lives.  As Sabine and Griffin learn more about each other, they fall in love.  The magic of the books is the art, decorated postcards and actual letters tucked in envelopes.  Each card and letter drew me deeper into the story.  The communications range from romantic to the mysterious to fear of insanity–did Griffin make up Sabine, or is she real?  Both books leave the reader wondering.  That must have been Bantock’s plan, because I just discovered that, over a 25 year period,  he created six books of correspondence between the two mysterious lovers.