Griffin and Sabine

A trilogy of books by Nick Bantock. Concerns two artists, seperated by oceans for their entire lives, who can see each other's artwork...

The story is told totally through letters they send to one another. You actually open the envelopes and read the letters yourself...

When you are

a failed artist

a hopeless romantic

and in a lovelorn drought

these books are quite powerful.

It's not quite as straightforward as that, however -- throughout the series, it's ambiguous exactly what the nature is of the characters' relationships, realities, or, in the case of Griffin, sanity.

In the first book, Griffin appears to have imagined up Sabine in a fit of utter loneliness and depression, only to have his other, "Sabine" personality take dangerous form in his mind. Later, the question of her reality and, if real, phasing into Griffin's plane of reality, is still vague.