From Amazon.com: “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.”

An illustrated novel, Griffin & Sabine: An Extraordinary Correspondence is a beautiful book. I don’t think I really give anything away by telling you that Sabine somehow “shares (Griffin’s) sight” and can see his paintings as he creates them. Sabine is also an artist, and the artwork of the two adorns the postcards and envelopes that they exchange.

As the first book opens, Sabine contacts Griffin for the first time. The artwork (particularly Sabine’s) starts out with jewel like colors and items from nature: parrots, salamanders and goldfish.

But as the book progresses and Sabine tells Griffin more and more of the things she has seen so that he cannot deny the truth of what she is telling him, Griffin seems to lose his grip on sanity and paints increasingly darker subjects: sightless naked baby birds and apocalyptic landscapes.

In Sabine’s Notebook: In Which the Extraordinary Correspondence of Griffin & Sabine Continues, Sabine travels to London to Griffin’s studio but, faced with the terrifying prospect of meeting his own fictional character, Griffin flees and, as he travels the world, corresponds with Sabine at home in his house. The art reflects his travels and his new found determination that Sabine is real. Initially anyway, the countries he visits take him backward in history—Rome, Greece, Egypt.

Once again, the story is told in strangely beautiful postcards and richly decorated letters that must actually be removed from their envelopes to read. But Sabine’s Notebook is also a sketchbook and a diary.

The lovers agree to meet in London but their plans go awry. Sabine travels back to her South Sea home without making face-to-face contact with Griffin.

As The Golden Mean: In Which the Extraordinary Correspondence of Griffin & Sabine Concludes opens, the lovers realize that it seems that neither can exist in the presence of the other. Yet neither can continue without the presence of the other. Their search for the golden mean—that mystical point of harmony—dominates this third book.

The story continues in the same epistolary manner as the first two. The art work reflects their love and longing for each other.

You’ll read all three of these books in less than an hour and then spend many more hours poring over the artwork. The Griffin & Sabine Trilogy Set is a feast for the eyes and fun to read besides.