The Correspondent

 

The Correspondent by Virginia Evans

Fiction

2025

Finished on October 4, 2025

Rating: 5/5 (Outstanding!)

Publisher's Blurb:

A woman tries to heal old wounds and make sense of the world the only way she knows how—through letters—in this charming, laugh out loud debut novel about a life fully lived.

“Dear Ms. Van Antwerp,

There is a movie coming out this month and I saw the trailer and it made me think of you. It’s about an old woman who lives alone like a hermit.  She is eccentric and rude….”

Sybil Van Antwerp is a mother and grandmother, divorced, retired from a distinguished career in law, an avid gardener, and a writer of letters. Most mornings, around half past ten, Sybil sits down to write letters—to her brother, to her best friend, to the president of the university who will not allow her to audit a class she desperately wants to take, to Joan Didion and Larry McMurtry to tell them what she thinks of their latest books. 

Because at seventy-three, Sybil has used her letters to make sense of the world and her place in it. But as Sybil expects her life to go on as it always has, letters from someone in her past force her to examine one of the most painful periods of her life.

Filled with knowledge that only comes from a life fully lived, The Correspondent is a gem of a novel that is a testament to the power of the written word.

What a delightful book! Several blogging friends have raved about The Correspondent, so when I saw a copy on the shelf at Imprint Bookshop (in Port Townsend, WA), I couldn't resist. One of my favorite subgenres is epistolary fiction, and as I sat down to start this post, I did a quick search to see just how many I've read/reviewed. Wow. I had no idea I'd read so many.* When I was a bookseller at Barnes & Noble, I created an endcap with some of my favorite epistolaries. Today, I'd need two endcaps! 

I wonder what it is about a book centered around a collection of letters that is so satisfying. Until the advent of email (I think we started with Prodigy and then moved on to AOL), I used to write to a few of my childhood friends, a good friend who moved to the East Coast, and to a few relatives (my grandmother, my godmother, and my mom, all after we moved from California to Nebraska). I loved finding pretty stationery to use for my letters, and had a couple of fountain pens that were fun to write with. I miss sitting down with pen in hand to write long, chatty letters, but typing is so much easier. Originally, I began by typing letters, printing them out to send in the mail. Even that method has gone by the wayside. I try to send birthday cards through the mail, but texting & Facebook seem to be the favored mode for that communication. After reading The Correspondent, I'm inspired to start writing again. 

But back to the novel. What a wonderful achievement for Virginia Evans. I never would have guessed this was her debut! I enjoyed the book from the first page, and wound up starting over after I reached the 60th page. I knew it was going to be a winning read and I didn't want to read it too quickly. 

Sybil reminded me of Olive Kitteridge with her unfiltered, opinionated comments, saying exactly what she felt, not mincing words. And yet, I loved the spunk and kindness that came through in her letters. I also like that she received replies from the various authors to whom she wrote. (Yes, I know she's not a real person, but I was still happy for her.) I was especially thrilled to read the details of Ann Patchett's reply on a postcard with an image of her dog... I, too, have received the same postcard from Patchett in response to a letter I sent to her a few years ago! I also found myself nodding my head as I read the exchanges between Sybil and Joan Didion. I read The Year of Magical Thinking after our daughter died. "The club of parents who have buried children is a membership I wish I did not own, but the sense of being seen is comforting."

In addition to my love of epistolary works, I enjoy books that reference other books, and The Correspondent is chockful of titles, many of which I've read (denoted with the check mark):

• Outlander by Diana Gabaldon
• The Chateau by Jaclyn Goldis
• Round House by Louise Erdrich
• Inferno by Dan Brown
• Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier ✅
• The World Below by Sue Miller ✅
• To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf ✅
• Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen ✅
• State of Wonder by Ann Pachett ✅
• Bel Canto by Ann Patchett ✅
• Run by Ann Patchett
• Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese ✅
• Blue Nights by Joan Didion
• The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion ✅
• The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro
• Never Let me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
• Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie ✅
• Crossing to Safety by Wallace Stegner
• The Orphan Master's Son by Adam Johnson
• Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie
• Mary Poppins by P.L. Travers
• Ulysses by James Joyce
• 84 Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff ✅
• Travels with Charley by John Steinbeck ✅
• Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte ✅
• Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry ✅
• The Space Trilogy by C.S. Lewis
• The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis
• Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien
• The Emperor of All Maladies by Siddhartha Mukherjee
• Stoner by John Williams ✅
• The White Album by Joan Didion
• Amongst Women by John McGahern
• That They May Face the Rising Sun by John McGahern
• The Stories of William Trevor by William Trevor
• The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo series by Stieg Larsson ✅

Dear Virginia,

Thank you for creating such a wonderful character in Sybil. I loved each and every letter, and will recommend your novel to all of my book-loving (and letter-loving) friends. Please write back! Actually, I would prefer you skip a reply and get to work on another book. Meanwhile, I plan to re-read your excellent book in the coming months.

With great admiration,

A fellow lover of snail-mail.

*Below is my list (with links) of the epistolary books that I've read:

84, Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff (5/5)

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows (4.75/5)

These is My Words: The Diary of Sarah Agnes Prine, 1881-1901 by Nancy Turner (5/5)

Daisy Fay and the Miracle Man by Fannie Flagg

Bridget Jones's Diary by Helen Fielding (3/5)

The Color Purple by Alice Walker (5/5)

Address Unknown by Kathrine Kressmann Taylor (3.5/5)

Last Days of Summer by Steve Kluger (4.75/5)

Love & Saffron by Kim Fay (5/5)

The Pull of the Moon by Elizabeth Berg (4/5)

Paris Letters by Janice MacLeod (4/5)

Letters From Skye by Jessica Brockmole (3.5/5)

Meet Me at the Museum by Anne Youngson (4/5)

Dear Stranger, Dearest Friend by Laney Katz Becker (5/5)

Dear Exile: The True Story of Two Friends Separated (for a Year) by an Ocean by Hilary Liftin (3/5)

The Rainbow Comes and Goes: A Mother and Son on Life, Love, and Loss by Anderson Cooper and Gloria Vanderbilt (4/5)

A Celibate Season by Carol Shields and Blanche Howard (4.5/5)

My Dear Cassandra: Selections from the Letters of Jane Austen (Penelope Hughs-Hallett, editor) (3/5)

Tiny Beautiful Things: Advice on Love and Life from Dear Sugar by Cheryl Strayed (4.5/5)

Delicious by Ruth Reichl (3.5/5)

That Part Was True by Deborah McKinlay (4.5/5)

Impatient with Desire by Gabrielle Burton (4/5)

Holly's Inbox by Holly Denham (2.5/5)

The Recipe Club by Andrea Israel and Nancy Garfinkel (3/5)

'Tis the Season! by Lorna Landvik (4/5)

Between Friends by Debbie Macomber

The Boy Next Door by Meggin Cabot