A love story for the ages, the tale of Griffin and Sabine is an international sensation that spent over 100 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list and continues to beguile readers 25 years after its original publication. Here to celebrate that anniversary is the final volume in Griffin and Sabine's story—a book that can be enjoyed as a singular reading experience or in conjunction with the series as a whole. The Pharos Gate rejoices in the book as physical object, weaving together word and image in beautifully illustrated postcards and removable letters that reveal a sensual and metaphysical romance, one full of mystery and intrigue. Published simultaneously with the 25th-anniversary edition of Griffin & Sabine, The Pharos Gate finally shares what happened to the lovers in a gorgeous volume that will surely delight Griffin and Sabine's longtime fans and a new generation of readers.
Nick was schooled in England and has a BA in Fine Art (painting). He has authored 25 books, 11 of which have appeared on the best seller lists, including 3 books on The New York Times top ten at one time. Griffin & Sabine stayed on that list for over two years. His works have been translated into 13 languages and over 5 million have been sold worldwide. Once named by the classic SF magazine Weird Tales as one of the best 85 storytellers of the century. He has written articles and stories for numerous international newspapers and magazines. His Wasnick blogs are much followed on Facebook and Twitter. His paintings, drawings, sculptures, collages and prints have been exhibited in shows in UK, France and North America. In 2010 Nick's major retrospective exhibition opened at the MOA in Denver. His works are in private collections throughout the world. Nick has a lifetime BAFTA (British Oscar) for the CD-ROM game Ceremony of Innocence, created with Peter Gabriel's Real World, featuring Isabella Rossolini and Ben Kingsley. He has two iPad apps, Sage and The Venetian and is working on a third. Three of his books have been optioned for film and his stage play based on the Griffin & Sabine double trilogy premiered in Vancouver in 2006.
Produced artwork for more than 300 book covers (including works by Roth and Updike), illustrated Viking Penguin's new translation of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. He's designed theater posters for the London plays of Tom Stoppard and Alec Guinness.
For 20 years Bantock has spoken and read to audiences throughout North America, Europe and Australia. Given keynote and motivational speeches to corporations and teachers state conferences. He's given dramatic readings on the radio and the stage and has been interviewed (way too many times) for TV, radio and print.
Bantock has worked in a betting shop in the East End of London, trained as a psychotherapist, designed and built a house that combined an Indonesian temple and a Russian orthodox church with an English cricket pavilion and a New Orleans bordello. Between 2007 and 2010 was one of the twelve committee members responsible for selecting Canada's postage stamps.
Among the things Bantock can't do: Can't swim, never ridden a horse, his spelling is dreadful and his singing voice is flat as a pancake.
It is probably not rational for me to attempt to review this book. It falls as a final chapter of a series that has meant profound things in my life, that I realize, even as I finish the final card, will continue to reverberate consequences for me. I've read it alone on the blacktop in elementary school, peeling out envelopes and sharing in the secret. I've sent it to strangers. I've given it to beloved friends. I've cried over it. I've sought its untold shards in digital form across the internet. I've hung it from my a talisman, a lodestone. As a creative spirit, the series truly has haunted my life and I am profoundly grateful for its eidolon on my shoulder.
Love, self, mystery, the hazy and incomprensible shadows within that fear a soul alert and aware of itself - even if that soul happens to appear in a body separate from one's own. The stories have always spoken to the irrepressible hunger for history, connection, creative communion...for being seen when we feel most alone. The Pharos Gate wraps and defines the metaphysical world of Griffin and Sabine at the same time it pulls other threads loose, slips off other robes.
My only gripe is the feeling that it is too short, that I know, on some level, the nature of the resolution. But I will always be ravenous for more of this world and there will be time now to marinate in the images, in the glories of handwriting, in the petroglyphs that crawl on back pages and dance in the corners.
Is it real? Like anything else, the story goes as far as you are willing to go with it. Fight back the birds, the beasts, and lead it where you must.
"We can never let the pragmatic and the ethereal marry."
Or can we? Will the two realities finally be united, or will the evil Frolatti have his way? Find out here in the final book of correspondence between Griffin and Sabine.
The Pharos Gate is magical, a return to the impossible and inescapable magic of the previous books. A return to a couple separated by land and sea but connected by the depth of their love for each other, connected by happenstance. By letters and postcards.
The first three books enchanted me as a child. The gorgeous and sometimes abstract artwork of the postcards. The curved lines of Sabine's handwriting. The nervousness and hesitation in Griffin's first few messages, the panic at the end of the first book. The intensity of their journey. The way this story is told in few words, the finite number of words that can fit on the back of a postcard, but conveys enough emotion and determination as any thousand page book can.
Here is the last stretch for Sabine and Griffin. After corresponding for more than a year, after travelling around the world, after a failed attempt at being together, they are ready to leave their homes and their lives behind. They've shared secrets, shared artwork and ideas, shared the depth of their love for each other and the joy and sorrow that sprang up from it, like seedlings in the spring. They're ready to be together. But it's not so simple. Their first encounter was by chance, Sabine somehow, in the South Pacific, being able to see into Griffin's London studio. It was impossible. Improbable. And here are those in the world that will not allow them to meet.
There's an extra something in this book, an extra poignancy that's currently lost in the digital age, in the age of technology and immediacy. Time passes so slowly here. The longing, the waiting. The yearning to find a card in the mailbox, to see the familiar handwriting. This is what I remember when reading those first three books so many years ago. The desperation in Griffin and Sabine's words. Their desire to finally be face to face, to finally be together without fear or anger or distance in their way. Without the rules of the world in their way. They defy their hunter, defy the idea that "the pragmatic and the ethereal" should never meet, never marry. This is their choice. No matter what the rules of the world are, what some say. Their connection is stronger than that, goes deeper than that, and they will not be kept apart any longer.
I wonder if these books are where it started, my love of the mundane combined with the extraordinary. With storytelling. With epic love stories and connections. This is a definite must-read for those who fell in love with the earlier books, for those who've always wondered what happened between The Golden Mean and The Gryphon. For those looking for a piece of the impossible.
(I received a finished copy of this book to review from Raincoast Books.)
Well wasn't this a lovely surprise! I'm sure a lot of people are already familiar with Nick Bantock's apparently quite famous "Griffin and Sabine" stories. They are an epic tale of love between two people one of whom happens to have been literally imagined into existence by the other. That's why they call me "late to the party" Fiore. (sidenote: no one calls me that).
I ran across The Pharos Gate: Griffin & Sabine's Lost Correspondence entirely by accident one afternoon in the stacks primarily because it just physically stands out from the other books. It's a tiny little blue tome with a very unique "found art" looking picture on the cover. And when I opened it...my oh my oh my...I couldn't not take it out.
The book is written as a series of letters and postcards sent between the various characters; Griffin and Sabine's heartfelt, beautiful letters to each other, missives from Griffin to a devoted friend trying to help him though she doesn't quite believe what's going on, and dark warnings from a sinister adversary determined to keep the lovers apart.
What's so super peachy keen is the letters are actual letters that you have to take out and unfold to read and the postcards all appear to have been pasted into the book so you actually feel like you're paging through someone's scrap book. There's also page after page of awesome looking art that Griffin is creating throughout the narrative.
This is one of those great books that you get to sort of tactiley experience and read. Visually it's a blast and honestly its kind of fun to take the letters out and unfold them. I had this silly, childish grin on my face the whole time.
Though I learned after the fact that this is merely one in a much longer series its a perfectly sweet standalone fantasy romance. Bantock is a wonderful writer and Griffin and Sabine have very distinct voices; Griffin the lonely pragmatist changed by love and Sabine the dreamer who gives up everything she's ever known to be with him.
This book was a bit like a very pleasant dream. Fanciful and sweet and over too soon.
What a startlingly wonderful end to this series! It's been such a long time since I read the original series, but there's a reader-surrogate summary letter pretty early on so it wasn't too bad. More than the others, this one reminded me so much of The Tattooed Map. I definitely want to revisit the G&S books, and the Morningstar books (which I read but definitely don't remember). Honestly the most wonderful thing for me was the handwriting. I didn't realize I had missed it so much!
Well I am just so profoundly annoyed by this. The first three books of the Griffin & Sabine story were wonderful, so eerie and mysterious. I was disappointed in the second three books, because they pretty much abandoned Griffin & Sabine without completing their story to focus on new characters is a strange offshoot I didn't much care for. Now this book I am assuming was written all these years later just to shut up all the people whining that he left Griffin & Sabine hanging. It took all of ten minutes to read. It was just Oh Sabine I'm on my way to meet you, Oh Griffin I'm on my way as well, oh, the bad guy doesn't want us to meet so beware, here comes a letter from the bad guy, twirling his mustache, I WILL thwart you! Griffin meets mean birds! Sabine meets mean dogs! But they do manage to meet FINALLY at the Pharos Gate, and talk about a cop out...we do not get that meeting from either of their perspectives! We just hear about it in one paragraph of a letter sent to Griffin's friend who asked her friend to spy on them and make sure they were okay . 'Hey it's cool, they met and then they just disappeared!" The end. I mean REALLY. The whole point was to finally find out what Griffin and Sabine felt when they met for real. Maybe he's planning another book, who knows, but this one is a complete waste of time.
I'm giving this book five stars on behalf of the entire series. "Pharos Gate" wrapped up this deep and wondrously creative series beautifully. Looking back it feels wrong to have rated each book separately. Perhaps I will "unstar" them at some point.
I was gifted the first trilogy from an acquaintance who is slowly letting go of her possessions as she moves into the later stages of life—she felt that they were made for me. I didn't feel a connection when she handed the books to me, and it took me over a month before I sat down to read them. It felt like an obligation of sorts, but this quickly dissipated as I was pulled into the correspondence and esoteric/metaphysical lives of Griffin and Sabine. I even shed tears. I couldn't believe that the library had the last four books with all the letters (and extra notes/symbols) intact.
I can't put into words what the series meant to me... and that's probably because I don't quite understand the significance with my logical mind.
. . . Oh, and I loved that author updated his photo in this book. It was a piece of evidence that showcase how the series has evolved in linear time.
I wish I could give this book & entire series 1 million stars! I know it sounds crazy but this series really struck a chord with me. The adventure & love Griffin & Sabine share are completely engrossing and exciting & you actually feel your heart start to pound as they get ever closer to the Pharos Gate! This book was well worth the almost 1 year wait to read it!
A sentimental, hopelessly romantic and very satisfying ending to a long journey. However, I think the thing I found most profound was finding a white haired old man in place of the young handsome man captured in the author’s photo at the back of the book. What a journey this must have been for him.
Definitely my favorite GRIFFIN AND SABINE book since the beginning twenty some years ago! The art was stunning, the story was still dreamy but with some danger. And if this was the end of the series I’m satisfied, but if it’s the beginning of a new journey, how exciting!
I really needed this last book to wrap everything up. The story now feels very satisfying but I could have been happy with the first three and this book. Yet the artwork is always fascinating and I will reread these books many times in the future, noticing new drawings and references. There’s so much to take in.
I can’t write a review. This book is brilliant and profound. Touchingly romantic. You should read it. Everyone should read it. You’ll be changed when you understand the pragmatic can indeed meet the ethereal and some truths must be expressed in allegory.
Nick Bantock has produced a whole series of magnificent "book artifacts" we should call them -- not just books. Based around a supposed correspondence between Griffin (a painter based in London in the UK) and Sabine (a young woman on a mystical South Pacific Island who somehow can see his paintings while he's doing them,) these volumes include the post-cards and letters that have been sent back and forth over a series of years. The illustrations Bantock produces are magnificent, and it is great fun actually opening the letters and pulling out the papers on which each of the two have written.
This new book, appearing well after the originals left us hanging with its mysterious narrative, is supposed to be the "lost correspondence" that helps to unravel what happened to Griffin and Sabine. Like past volumes, the art is colourful, imaginative and intriguing -- and the letters once more yield beautifully produced pages to enjoy. Look especially at the postage stamps to appreciate just how superbly Bantock carries through the details of his project!
And yes, after reading the volume twice (more carefully the second time,) there does seem to be a resolution to this grand allegory. It's all Magical Realism, but somewhere in Alexandria a conclusion is reached. For those who read the six previous volumes, you will find it possible to sigh with contentment and say I always knew it would work out that way (or maybe the contrary if you are a hard-boiled non-romantic.)
For myself, these superb books have always been much more about the journey than the destination. And that is true for "The Pharos Gate" as well. Nick Bantock has produced another enduring piece of magic -- full of grand themes, hidden clues and wonderful art. Read it, experience it, and enjoy.
i received this book as a gift months ago, and had been saving it until i knew i would have a chance to re-read the other 5 books in the series first. i wish i hadn't waited so long. the book jacket says this is the "final book in the series", but it is not. This should be (is?) book 4, not book 7. The Pharos Gate might have served as a very satisfying conclusion to the original Griffin & Sabine trilogy if the second trilogy of books didn't already exist. The art and correspondence in this book is as breathtaking as ever. It is a beautiful collection of words and pictures - ancient, mythological, and modern - all swirled together to create something unique and alluring. But there is a serious problem with the story that i just can't get my head around...
SPOILER ALERT: Griffin and Sabine walk through the gate together and disappear; which means they are in the same place/time BEFORE they go through the gate. This just seems to break everything that came previously about them being separated (Frolatti and the dark angels trying to keep them apart in order to keep the realms of logic and faith from coming together). If they were already in the same space/time, why go through the gate at all?
My 25 year wait for the lovers, Griffin and Sabine, to at long last get together has reached a conclusion. This is another book with stunning paintings, drawings and tiny petroglyphs decorating their letters and postcards. The lovers seem to inhabit parallel worlds and a sinister man has been stalking them with the threat that the ethereal and the pragmatic must never meet. He is determined to keep them apart. The correspondence tells a wildly romantic tale of longing with elements of the metaphysical and supernatural. The art work is mostly bordering on the abstract and this volume lacks the variety of various forms of illustrations in the previous books. Highly recommended for anyone who has read the previous books. You won't have to wait 25 years to discover if the two lovers after several years of yearning and frustration ever manage to meet despite all the obstacles preventing their union.
I continue to be baffled as to why these books are seen as romantic correspondence between lovers when they are dark dark dark. A couple of things to chew on:
(1) Victor Frolatti = Isabella. Same exact antiquated cursive handwriting. (2) Griffin = Matthew. Same awkward typing and punctuation issues. Griffin finds a typewriter in this set of correspondence - surprise! (3) From earlier books - Griffin's handwriting was subsumed by Sabine's.
I find it hard to believe that in books so detailed, we are supposed to overlook these very intentional artistic decisions, and yet, I'm not sure what to make of them.
This book is absolutely gorgeous, although it finished way too quickly. The artwork is stunning. The handwriting is interesting. The correspondence is mysterious and suspenseful. It has been at least a decade since I've read the original Griffin and Sabine trilogy, and now I want to pick up the first book and start them all over again. I've truly never encountered anything like this series.
What a delightful addition to a series I have adored for years. A perfect ending! Griffin and Sabine may be, in their way, the greatest lovers in all of literature. I have never seen the "book in a series of letters" done better. And the art is at least as good as the love story. Love, love, love, love, love!
I can't be unbiased about this book. I adore this series -- it is one of my most treasured sets of books, and I was thrilled to see that there was another book in the series. Everything I loved about the original Griffin & Sabine story is here -- and I'm left wanting more, after that ending. I'm hoping that this won't be the final volume after all...
Interactive books are a favorite of mine. For a few years I vowed to only keep those types of really special books in my house. But judging by the loaded bookcases in the attic, I didn't honor that goal. Picking up this story again after many years was a joy. If you've never read about Griffin and Sabine, you've got a treat in store with these books!
I love this whole series and was totally surprised to see there was a new book out. It is just as magical and beautiful as all the previous books. Finally knowing exactly what happened when Griffin and Sabine met was quite satisfying. I wonder if we'll see a new Matthew and Isabella book next?