Sipsworth

Starred review from March 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.

September 1, 2024

An older woman returns to her small English hometown after living abroad in Australia for more than half her life. Since the deaths of Helen Cartwright's husband and of her son, all she has wanted to do is retreat to her childhood home in Westminster Crescent and die in peace and quiet. No fuss is needed; everyone she has ever loved is gone, and no one would mourn her passing. She leads an unhurried life as she waits for death with quiet resolve. But after Helen sees her neighbor throwing out some unusual trash, she finds objects that remind her of her own past. More than that, however, she discovers an unusual reason to live--a mouse, whom she dubs Sipsworth after he accepts a drink from her upturned bottle cap. A tender story of loss, discovery, grief, and hope, luminously narrated by Christine Rendel in a manner that will sweep listeners up. VERDICT Moments of hilarity, heartache, and second chances make Van Booy's (The Presence of Absence) heartwarming latest a perfect recommendation for fans of Fredrik Backman's A Man Called Ove.--Erin Cataldi

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