Sipsworth

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of illness and death.



At the beginning of the novel, Helen Cartwright is 83 years old. She moved to her girlhood home in a small town in England three years previously after living in Australia for 60 years. Her parents, beloved husband, and son are all dead, and for three years she has been living an isolated life, resigned and awaiting her own death. She denies herself any pleasures, including desserts, and spends her days watching television, napping, and recalling memories of her loved ones.

After Sipsworth enters her life, however, she finds a new purpose in caring for him, though she initially plans to give him away to an animal rescue center. In the process of creating a shelter for Sipsworth, she meets and befriends Cecil, the shopkeeper at the hardware store. Moved by the fact that even a mouse is capable of giving and receiving love, she vows to stop eating meat. When Sipsworth becomes ill, she reveals that she is a retired pediatric cardiac surgeon and rallies to save him with the help of local cardiac surgeon Dr. Jamal. By the story’s end, she has transformed and is fully present and engaged in her own life.