“Subtly told and finely made The Correspondent is a portrait of a small life expanding.
Virginia Evans shows how one woman changes at a point when change had seemed impossible. That
change like this novel turns out to be a cause for celebration.”—Ann Patchett NATIONAL
BESTSELLER • LIBRARYREADS APRIL PICK • NAMED A GOOD HOUSEKEEPING (UK) MOST ANTICIPATED DEBUT
“Imagine the letters one has sent out into the world the letters received back in turn are
like the pieces of a magnificent puzzle or a better metaphor if dated the links of a long
chain and even if those links are never put back together which they will certainly never be
even if they remain for the rest of time dispersed across the earth like the fragile blown
seeds of a dying dandelion isn’t there something wonderful in that to think that a story of
one’s life is preserved in some way that this very letter may one day mean something even if
it is a very small thing to someone?” 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. 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’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.
