Review: The Correspondent by Virginia Evans

Title: The Correspondent

Author: Virginia Evans

Year published: 2025

Category: Adult fiction

Pages: 304 pages

Rating: 4.5 out of 5

Location: (my 2025 Google Reading map): USA (MD, TX), UK, and France

Summary: Filled with knowledge that only comes from a life fully lived, The Correspondent is a gem of a novel about the power of finding solace in literature and connection with people we might never meet in person. It is about the hubris of youth and the wisdom of old age, and the mistakes and acts of kindness that occur during a lifetime.

Sybil Van Antwerp has throughout her life used letters to make sense of the world and her place in it. 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, and to one person to whom she writes often yet never sends the letter.

Sybil expects her world to go on as it always has—a mother, grandmother, wife, divorcee, distinguished lawyer, she has lived a very full life. But when letters from someone in her past force her to examine one of the most painful periods of her life, she realizes that the letter she has been writing over the years needs to be read and that she cannot move forward until she finds it in her heart to offer forgiveness.

Sybil Van Antwerp’s life of letters might be “a very small thing,” but she also might be one of the most memorable characters you will ever read.

Review: This book is getting a lot of buzz, so my in-person book group chose it for this month. At first, I thought, it's interesting, but I don't get the hype. Stick with it! This is a character study with some plot and it worked really well for me.

Sybil is difficult to like at times. She is curt, a bit hermit-y, she forgets about other people's feelings, and she is hurting. I don't want to say more and give anything away, but I came to really feel for Sybil and have empathy for her. 

Through Sybil's letters, we meet her family and friends, understand that everyone has struggles and secrets, and that patience, compassion, and understanding go a long way. I love writing, sending, and receiving letters so the epistolary format of this novel worked well for me. It was fun that she wrote to famous authors, university personnel, and people from her work life, and through these letters, we learn even more about Sybil and her life.

Challenges for which this counts:

• Bookish--the character writes letters