We all need something or someone to care for, as an 82 year old woman soon finds out. Having lost all those dear to her, she thinks the only thing left for her to do, is to die. She never expected to find, rummaging in a neighbors trash, an aquarium. An aquarium with a little mouse in it, a muse she calls Sipsworth. A mouse that will soon become her reason to live, but that also the impetus to bring her back into the world of finding new friends.

A very unusual book for this author but a quiet, mostly sweet read. It reminded me of a parable, a lesson to never give up hope regardless of age. There is always more to experience in life.

I liked this but it was a bit too twee for me. This is my monthly read with Angela and as always it s a joy to have her as my reading buddy.

Listened to this on audio and it was well done.

This book was sweet, but a very slow burn. It took me a lot of putting it down and picking it back up to get there, it wasn't a binge or read in a day book. I think I also would have liked to find more likeable characters or more about the characters for it to get me there to that bingeworthy, loveable book which this one almost had.

What a delightful discovery! I will be looking for more of this kind of comfort and gentle truths shared from the pen of Simon Van Booy. . .

Helen Cartwright is a woman ready to go, listening hard to the tick-tock of her clocks, and checking every box on her daily list. Waiting. Waiting. Waiting. She is the last one standing of her beloved tribe, and she's ready to join them. Waiting. By the first few pages I was convinced, persuaded, and figured I knew the sum of who and how Helen C was here at the end of her days, but puzzled because this book had just begun and there were many pages to go. . .

About then Helen found she had company. Unusual company, in whose care of she finds new a outlook, the comforts offered by the outside world and remembers a few things she's forgotten.

Here's a tale to gladden you, whisk away jadedness, and restock a robust reliance in cosmic conjunctions.

*A sincere thank you to Simon Van Booy, HighBridge Audio, and NetGalley for an ARC to read and independently review.* #Sipsworth #NetGalley

Helen Cartwright lived and worked in Australia for decades. Now in her 80s, and following the deaths of her husband and son, she has returned to the village where she grew up and is waiting to die. One day she drags home a discarded fish tank and discovers that a mouse is living inside. Helen apparently does not realize that, when it comes to stray animals, if you feed it it’s yours.

This book had its touching moments. Important details of Helen’s past were nicely withheld until the surprising reveal. I liked the way that the presence of the mouse named Sipsworth brought Helen into contact with villagers who eased her loneliness and enriched her life. I definitely related to the example of how caring for an animal can relieve other pressures in your life. I did not buy the premise that an intelligent adult would ever entertain the notion that an animal shelter would accept mice. I also thought that the story was a little too twee. However, I liked Helen and the book held my interest.

I received a free copy of this audiobook from the publisher.

What a spectacular surprise. Much like the beloved A Man Called Ove did years ago, this book starts out quietly and unobtrusively, lulling the reader into an sedate armchair visit with a person in the twilight of their life. Helen's husband and son have died, and she's returned to the town she left as a young woman. But the calm monotony quickly changes into an attention-grabbing narrative that claims every bit of the reader's attention and sympathy. And the transformation in Sipsworth comes about thanks to a mouse. Not a superhero mouse, not a paranormal mouse, and not a metaphorical mouse, but a very real, very small, run-of-the-mill mouse who just happens to end up inside Helen Cartwright's house while she's gradually and serenely closing down her life and preparing to die. I'm not going to outline the plot and reveal the author's ingenuity; pick up the book and prepare to be enchanted.

What a joy, what a joy!! I am a sucker for stories with older lonely characters who through the help of strangers find happiness and community. This is perfect for people who loved A Man Called Ove.

4.5⭐

Widowed and having lost her adult son to a tragic accident years ago, eighty-three-year-old Helen Cartwright, had moved back to Westminster Crescent, after sixty years in Australia, to quietly live out the rest of her life. Helen is content in her solitude, surrounded by her memories and her daily life built around a set routine with minimal social interaction. Despite having lived in Westminster Crescent before her marriage, she has no friends or acquaintances with whom she could spend time even if she were so inclined and isn’t motivated to forge new connections.

Helen’s life changes when she encounters a mouse in a discarded heap of trash – a mouse she begins to care about and names Sipsworth. We follow Helen over the course of a little over a week as she is inspired to effect positive changes in her life in her efforts to take care of her new friend.

Sipsworth by Simon Van Booy is a charming story about friendship, community, second chances and how life can surprise you in the best possible ways. Helen is an interesting protagonist and is portrayed as an intelligent, inquisitive and compassionate person. I liked that we did not have to rely solely on Helen’s memories to know her backstory but some interesting facts about her life are also shared with a few surprising revelations as the narrative progresses in the present timeline. The author addresses sensitive themes such as aging, loneliness and grief with wisdom and compassion. The narrative is relatively slow-paced, which suits the nature of the story and I thought the supporting characters were well thought out. While I can’t say I’m personally fond of mice (unless it’s an animated character named Mickey), there is no doubt about the profound positive impact that our furry friends have on our lives and the author captures this sentiment beautifully in this story.

Christine Rendel’s heartfelt audio narration breathes life into this beautiful story and the characters.

I thoroughly enjoyed this novel and didn’t want it to end. A short yet impactful read, this heartwarming story left me with a lump in my throat and a smile on my face. This is my first time reading Simon Van Booy and it surely won’t be my last.

Many thanks to HighBridge Audio for the ALC via NetGalley.

Quiet and thoughtful, Sipsworth is a salve for weary hearts.

If you had told me that my very first five star read this year was going to be a quiet, slice of life novel about an Octogenarian and a mouse, I am not sure I would have believed it! I knew, after listening to the very first chapter though, that Sipsworth was something special. It is a story that provokes a thoughtful look at ageing and how one goes on when all feels lost. It's about finding meaning in the mundane and learning to live through loss. Our main character, Helen , is ever so pragmatic. She brings a healthy dose of humor and levity to the page. Her sidekick,Sipsworth, serves as both friend and teacher. He guides Helen and readers into the realization that endings can also be beautiful beginnings!

thank you to @Netgalley and @HighbridgeAudio for the audio ARC!

Sipsworth was the first book that I have had the opportunity to read by Simon Van Booy. I was drawn to the cover immediately but I wasn’t sure how I felt about reading about a relationship between an older woman and a mouse. How silly of me! I soon discovered that this heartfelt story was so much more. It was written so beautifully and allowed me to feel the feelings of loss, discovery, sadness and hope. I listened to the audiobook that was narrated so well by Christine Rendel. I was so invested in the characters, the acts of love, and the changes in heart that I didn’t want Sipsworth to end.

Helen Cartwright was an eighty something year old woman. She had moved from England to Australia as a young bride and never looked back. When Helen’s beloved husband died, though, and when her son died a senseless and premature death, Helen left Australia and returned to the home she had grew up in. It was located in England. Helen Cartwright had lost her will to live. She had returned home to England to wait for death to find her as well. She had lost all the reasons that were important to her to want to continue to live. All Helen Cartwright wanted was “to die quickly and without fuss”.

Helen settled into a daily routine quickly. Her routine included taking her meals in front of the television where she watched the news in the morning and movies in the evening, venturing out to buy food and necessities, an occasional solitary walk and lots of naps. Helen was lonely and her existence was mundane. She often found herself reminiscing about memorable occasions in her past that included either her late husband or her son.

One night, as Helen stood by the window, she observed her neighbor placing certain items of trash at the curb. Amongst the things her neighbor was getting rid of was an old aquarium. Inside the aquarium, Helen discovered a box and several children’s toys. These things spurred old memories that involved her son. Helen knew that she couldn’t let those things be carted away. Helen knew that she needed to save those things from being taken away by the garbage collectors. That night, Helen learned that beside the aquarium, box and children’s toys, she also inherited a little mouse.

Over time, Helen and the mouse who became known as Sipsworth, learned to rely on one another in a way that I am quite certain Helen never imagined. Helen and Sipsworth found a way to wriggle themselves into each other’s hearts. One became dependent upon the other but in quite different ways. Ultimately, it became hard for both Helen and Sipsworth to imagine a life without the other.

Sipsworth was so profound on so many different levels. As a person ages and looses the people they love and care about, their outlook on life can and often changes as it did with Helen Cartwright. Sipsworth came into Helen’s life for a reason. For others like Helen Cartwright, dormant feelings need to be sparked to give them a reason to want to continue living. Everyone needs something or someone to inspire them to want to live. For Helen Cartwright, it was Sipsworth. I really enjoyed getting to know the character of Helen Cartwright. Her unique idiosyncrasies were welcomed, appreciated and enjoyed. Sipsworth packed a lot into its short length. It was most delightful, funny at times, sad at other times and quite relatable. I really enjoyed listening to the audiobook of Sipsworth by Simon Van Booy and highly recommend it.

Thank you to HighBridge Audio for allowing me to listen to the audiobook of Sipsworth by Simon Van Booy through Netgalley in exchange for this honest and unbiased review.

What a captivating story! The ability to craft a tale about an elderly woman overwhelmed by solitude, and her transformative encounter with a small mouse, showcases remarkable talent.

Reading this book feels like snuggling up with a warm water bottle on a chilly winter evening.I can't praise this book enough.

The narration by Christine Rendel truly enhanced the book, in my opinion.This book is a true gem, and I'm eager to explore other works by the author, Simon Van Booy. I thoroughly enjoyed every bit of it!

Thank you, NetGalley and HighBridge Audio.

I see that this is getting good reviews but it was not for me. It felt like a take off of A Man Called Ove or The Brilliant Life of Eudora Honeysett without the humor! Instead of a quirky child, we get a mouse. In the future, I hope I encounter the quirky child not a mouse.

This is a quiet, tender-heartful book with lush writing that will appeal to readers that want to remember, feel and dream just a little. An elderly woman is ready for the end of her life, living with past memories of her husband and her son when a mouse enters her life. We read of the ordinary steps of her days that somehow touches our heart. This is a gentle kind read that that will appeal to readers that want to remember, feel and dream just a little.

Thank you to netgalley and David R. Godine, Publisher

This short audiobook was wonderful! I was instantly sucked into the story and loved falling in love with it. A feisty older retired heart surgeon finds a surprise visitor in her home which takes her on a weeklong journey that you can't stop enjoying. Just decide to take the time to indulge in one setting. It might change your mind about what we love and how hard you fight for those things! Thanks NetGalley for the ARC audiobook, all these thoughts are my own.

Sipsworth is a very special book!

Helen Cartwright is an elderly woman who lost both her husband and her son, and is basically just waiting to die herself. She feels like she has no reason left to live.
With that thought in mind, she returns to her childhood neighborhood to live out her last days.
She does not leave the house.
She does not know her neighbors.
She is basically a recluse...

One day she sees something in her neighbors trash that catches her eye...it looks like something her son had when he was young...
So she pulls it into her house.
As she goes through it, she has many memories of her boy growing up...and this makes her happy.

What she doesn't realize is that when she brought this into her home, there was something living in it!

So now she is forced to go out of the house to buy traps? Something to catch it so she can bring it outside? Not sure what she's looking for...but she goes to the store...and in doing this meets people.

Such a sweet, beautiful story that teaches you that even when you think there is NOTHING left to live for, you are wrong! Love can be found in the smallest of things...and creatures.

Short and sweet!

4 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ for me!

Thanks to #NetGalley and #HighBridgeAudio for an ARC of the audiobook which releases in about a week on 4/5/24.

#Sipsworth by #SimonVanBooy and narrated nicely by #ChristineRendel.

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Thanks so much for reading!📚⭐️

Many thanks to NetGalley and HighRidge Audio for an ARC of this audiobook.

When I read the publisher’s description and discovered that this is a story about an elderly woman and her foundling mouse (the aristocratic-sounding Sipsworth of the title), I hesitated. I confess to a certain ridiculous mouse-phobia that extends to all their kin. But Simon Van Booy is such a gifted writer, I relented. I’m so very happy that I did.

Helen Cartwright is in many ways a typical octogenarian. A widow who lives adamantly alone, she adheres to a daily routine of tea and biscuits, TV news and old movies, the odd jigsaw puzzle, and short walks to get the few groceries she can bring back on foot. She naps a lot. She has the typical aches of older people but is still clear-headed, if prone to lapse into episodes of vivid remembering and frequent dreams. These concern her long ago childhood and her deceased husband and son and their life together in Australia.

In other ways, Helen is not so typical. With her son’s death three years earlier, she returned to her family roots in a small English village, buying a small retirement cottage near the street where she grew up. England, the land of her birth. She sold the family home and She had flourished in Australia, marrying a loving man, having a son, training as an innovative and even internationally known pediatric cardiologist. With the loss of both husband and son, she chooses to uproot herself again and go ‘full circle’, in her words, to live out her final years in a place that is at once comfortably familiar, with warm memories of its own, but where no one will know or remember her.

This is exactly how Helen wants her life to close. No regrets, no connections, minimal social interaction. She ventures out rarely and only for provisions or solitary walks, won’t take a bus or taxi, never allows anyone into her home, is polite but perfunctory with neighbours. She is content with her way of life, wanting only to go peacefully and painlessly, which is surely how we all want to go. Others see an odd little old lady and are happy enough to leave her be.

This sounds like a very sad story, and in some ways it is. Helen’s aloneness, even if chosen, leaves her with only death to look forward to. Along with an occasional Bakewell tart. But, as noted, she isn’t just an odd little old lady. Her professional training and natural inclinations, along with a tendency to speak her mind and ´diagnose’ make her too curious about people to withdraw completely. This is seen in her indulgence in the furtive habit of picking through other people’s garbage. One find, deposited at curbside by her next door neighbour, is a dirty old aquarium containing a cardboard box and miniature toys. It sparks happy memories of one of her son’s childhood birthdays. As fate would have it, it also draws her back into the world by introducing her to a tiny abandoned mouse. She first responds as I would, trying to find ways to get rid of it humanely. Gradually she is charmed by little Sipsworth as she calls him, for his way of getting a ‘sip’s worth’ of water from a bottle cap. She proceeds from ‘fostering’ to integrating him into all aspects of her life, sharing meals, watching TV, carrying him around in her abandoned slipper. She quickly comes to care for him profoundly. Tiny, vulnerable and non-human, Sipsworth saves her as she saves him.

Of course, this isn’t really a story about an old woman and her mouse. It’s a wondrous tale about how even those who believe themselves done with life can find new meaning in taking care of something—a person, a pet, a plant, something outside of themselves that returns to them a reason for being. I’m not about to go get myself a mouse, but I have to say that this all too brief novel, witty and wise, funny and sad, and wonderfully narrated by Christine Rendell, is like a warm hug. It will stay with you.

Audiobook Title: Sipsworth
Author: Simon Van Boot
Format: 🎧
Audiobook Narrator: Christine Rendell
Genre: Heartwarming
Publisher: HighBridge Audio
Audio Pub Date: April 5, 2024
Star Rating: 4.5 rounded up

Octogenarian Helen Cartwright returns to Westminster Crescent, the village of her childhood after both her husband and her son died. She was a Doctor and has lived in Australia for six decades and although ready for what is obviously next for her; she feels the need to reconnect with her past.
After looking through boxes of old stored items, she notices her neighbor taking several large plastic bags out for trash pick-up. She is curious as to what items other people consider trash. So she looks through and sees a fish tank. She remembers her son once had tropical fish and decides to bring in the tank. She was unaware but it appears she has also brought in a small mouse. She doesn’t want to kill the little rodent and the next thing she knows she has a pet mouse she names ‘Sipsworth’!
When Sip gets ill Helen does something that any pet owner would do - she does anything she can to make him better.

This story is sooo sweet. I found myself smiling at this whole adventure.
I am a big thriller fan which always has a big shock – no big shock but the ending created another big smile from me!
I believe any age will enjoy it.

Want to thank NetGalley and High Bridge Audio/ David R. Godine Publisher for granting me this early audio Galley.
Publishing Release Date scheduled for April 5, 2024.

Heartwarming story of an elderly woman finding a second chance when she has an unexpected house guest in a mouse named Sipsworth. Really funny, and I love the community of people who came together to support her. Really delightful. Quick and uplifting read.

4.5 rounded up.

This is a warm hug of a book. It’s perfect for fans of ‘A Man Called Ove’ - you have your grumpy old person who’s lost their family (an old woman this time), your charming helpless animal (a mouse this time), and your community that bands around her to support said animal. It didn’t do anything particularly novel for the genre, but it executed what it set out to do very well. So cozy!

📚 Series or Standalone: standalone
📚 Genre: general fiction
📚 Target Age Group: adult
📚 Cliffhanger: no

✨ Will I Reread: probably, on a rainy day or if I feel blue
✨ Recommended For: fans of ‘A Man Called Ove’

💕 Characters: 5/5
💕 Writing: 5/5
💕 Plot: 4/5
💕 Pacing: 4/4
💕 Unputdownability: 4/5
💕 Enjoyment: 4/5
💕 Book Cover: 5/5

Thanks, NetGalley and David R Godine, for the gifted ARC in exchange for an honest review.