Sipsworth

by Simon Van Booy, Christine Rendel (Read by)

Overview

Over the course of a single week, a woman who is ready to die discovers an unexpected reason to live.

Following the deaths of her husband and son, Helen Cartwright returns to the English village of her childhood after living abroad for six decades. Her only wish is to die quickly and without fuss.

Helen retreats into her home on Westminster Crescent, becoming a creature of routine and habit. Then, one cold autumn night, a chance encounter with an abandoned pet mouse on the street outside her house sets Helen on a surprising journey of friendship.

Sipsworth is a reminder that there can be second chances. No matter what we have planned for ourselves, sometimes the world has plans of its own. Simon Van Booy's lyrical storytelling is a delight even as it will fill your heart.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9798874709372
Publisher:	HighBridge Company
Publication date:	04/05/2024
Product dimensions:	5.20(w) x 5.70(h) x (d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Simon Van Booy has written over a dozen works of fiction (including Night Came with Many Stars) and is the editor of three volumes of philosophy. His books have been translated into many languages. He grew up in rural Wales but currently lives in New York City, where he works as an author, an editor, and an emergency medic at the Ridgewood Volunteer Ambulance Corps.

Christine Rendel is a British-born audiobook narrator living in New York. Drawing on a strong stage and musical theater background, and a lifelong love of books, she has narrated nearly 100 audiobooks for major publishers as well as smaller independent houses. Her favorite genres include cozy mystery, romance, literature, historical drama, biography, and nonfiction. She also enjoys narrating how-to's and educational texts: retired for some years from an exciting and international healthcare career, Christine's always a teacher and always learning!

Christine maintains a professional home studio on the end of eastern Long Island, from which she narrates and produces audiobooks, surrounded by nature, an unruly garden, and her supportive family-who also include two dogs and a lot of Koi fish.

She's a proud member of PANA, SAG-AFTRA, the Audio Publishers Association, and Actors' Equity Association.

Editorial Reviews

★ 03/18/2024

Van Booy’s enchanting latest (after The Presence of Absence) depicts the surprisingly touching relationship between an elderly widow and a mouse. After building a life in Australia with her late husband, retired physician Helen Cartwright returns to the English village where she grew up. There, her existence is uneventful, and she’s at a loss over what to live for (“Each day was an impersonation of the one before with only a slight shuffle—as though even for death there is a queue”). Then one night she discovers a mouse in her home and offers it a sip of water from an upturned bottle cap. After the mouse takes a drink, she dubs it Sipsworth. Helen’s quiet world expands thanks to Sipsworth’s companionship as they watch TV and listen to the radio together. Then the mouse shows signs of breathing distress, and Helen, once a renowned pediatric cardiologist, goes into action to save its life. Material that could easily feel saccharine or twee is fresh and often funny, thanks to the author’s artful prose and unsparing characterization of the cantankerous Helen, who at one point calls an animal shelter worker an “idiot” for not accepting mice. Van Booy takes the familiar trope of an aging person’s unexpected renewal and makes it feel new. Agent: Susanna Lea, Susanna Lea Assoc. (May)

Publishers Weekly

PRAISE FOR SIPSWORTH

“Simon Van Booy has performed another small literary miracle....trenchant and beautiful....countless passages beguile and move us.”
—Washington Post

“In its quiet, loving way, Sipsworth feels as rare and special as a friend.”
—Minneapolis Star Tribune

“A memorable story about serendipity—and what can happen when we keep our hearts open to surprise.”
—Christian Science Monitor

“Enchanting . . . fresh and often funny, thanks to the author’s artful prose.”
—Publisher's Weekly (starred review)

“Charming . . . generous . . . vibrant . . . reveal[s] something profound about the human need for connection.”
—Foreword Reviews (starred review)

“Hypnotic prose . . . a surprising and heartwarming tale about loss and love . . . an extraordinary work of fiction based in everyday humanity.”
—Joan Baum, Baum on Books, WSHU Public Radio

“Sipsworth is a love story about a woman and a mouse. Reason suggests that such a relationship couldn’t possibly work, and yet I found myself pulling for this unlikely duo on every page. Simon Van Booy’s characters are loaded with charm, resilience, and the deep desire for connection that all mammals share. I loved it.”
—Ann Patchett

“Through tears, laughter, joy, and pain, I just couldn’t stop reading this novel about friendship and second chances. Sipsworth is a marvel—storytelling at its absolute finest.”
—Marc Levy

“Whimsical, beautifully detailed, and filled with heart, Sipsworth is a slim, sparkling jewel of a novel.”
—Christina Baker Kline

ALSO BY SIMON VAN BOOY

The Presence of Absence

“Flows with depth and power....From its outset, The Presence of Absence runs blood-rich with declarations that make you inhale sharply....wide-open wonder.”
—Washington Post

“Rich in setting and emotion. As ever with Van Booy, the reader is in good hands.”
—Publishers Weekly

“Simon Van Booy electrifyingly combines story with parable. The Presence of Absence boggles and reverberates: wise, witty and always breathtakingly beautiful.”
—San Francisco Chronicle, Best Fiction of the Year

“With its elegant passages on love and the fallibility of memory . . . this indelible portrait of transience, sorrow and hope will move readers.”
—Shelf Awareness

Night Came with Many Stars

“It is a heartbreaking book, a gorgeous book...In Night Came with Many Stars, Van Booy finds the weakness, grace and beauty of common lives fully lived.”
—NPR, “Books We Love”

“Not to miss!”
—USA Today

“Kindness and raw luck undergird Night Came with Many Stars—echoing the trials and windfalls of Oliver Twist or David Copperfield. And like Dickens’s young heroes, Van Booy’s determined souls act with their whole hearts—as does this brave, fierce novel—to earn what good may come.”
—Boston Globe

“Van Booy is a beautiful storyteller, and his latest offering is no exception.”
—New York Post, “Best new books”

From the Publisher

2024-02-17
It takes a village…to care for an abandoned mouse with breathing issues, and to lure an elderly woman out of isolation.

After six decades spent in Australia, 83-year-old Helen Cartwright, a widowed doctor, has returned to England, to the town of her childhood. “Life for her was finished,” the days now a routine of cups of tea, slices of toast, hot baths, and daytime TV, interspersed with memories of her dead husband and son. “Each day was an impersonation of the one before with only a slight shuffle—as though even for death there is a queue.” Things shift, however, when she chooses to rescue a discarded aquarium from her neighbor’s trash. Hidden inside is a mouse, which she first tries to trap and then decides she will take to an animal shelter. Her feelings of responsibility and care for the rodent swell, and providing food and protection from a cat is just the beginning. Soon the mouse, named Sipsworth for its drinking style, is living in her sink and watching television with her from the safety of a slipper. Its needs force Helen to interact more with the outside world—visiting the library for mouse-care books, the hardware store for a new aquarium, and then the hospital for medical advice when Sipsworth suddenly falls ill. Now the novel switches from enigmatic curiosity to something more parable-esque, as Dr. Jamal from the hospital, Cecil from the hardware store, the town librarian, and others offer time, advice, and practical support to a woman who suddenly reveals a wholly unexpected hinterland. The book’s closing phase comes in a rush, as what began as the intriguing, sometimes philosophical story of an insular woman with “doors she keeps locked” dashes toward predictability and fairy tale.

A sympathetic but uneven oddity.

Kirkus Reviews