The Correspondent by Virginia Evans: Read Now!

Posted On April 25, 2026

Hi Readers!

Every once in a while, you read a book that’s so simple but stays with you beyond measure. You can’t really pick one thing that you enjoyed or something specific you loved. It also becomes impossible to write about such books in the same manner you write about other books. So, the only alternative left is just lines and lines of how the book made you feel, how you cried multiple times reading it, and how fiercely you will recommend it to everyone you come across. Such has been my journey with The Correspondent by Virginia Evans, which is now shortlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction Awards in 2026!

~~GOODREADS DESCRIPTION~~

Every morning, Sybil Van Antwerp sits down to write letters – to her brother, to her best friend, to the president of the university who will not allow her to attend a class she desperately wants to take, to her favourite authors to tell them what she thinks of their latest books, and to one person to whom she writes often yet never sends the letter.

Because at seventy-three, Sybil has used her correspondence – witty and wise – to make sense of the world. But beyond the page, she has spent the last thirty years keeping the people who love her at arms’ length… Until letters from someone in her past force her to examine one of the most painful periods of her life.

Now, Sybil must send the letter she has been writing for all these years – and find forgiveness within herself in order to move on.

Sybil Van Antwerp’s life of letters might not be an extraordinary one, but she also might be one of the most memorable characters you will ever read.

~~THOUGHTS~~

The Correspondent is Sybil Van Antwerp who has been writing letters since she was 9-years-old, and this habit of hers is still going strong at the age of 73 where the book starts. Across the ten years in which the book spans, she writes to anyone and everyone; her brother Felix, best friend Rosalie, many authors, her law friend’s son Harry, and so on. Among all these, there is always one letter which is in continuation and unsent, which reads like her diary.

Very early on itself, we see how Sybil’s writing is distinct towards each person she writes to. With Rosalie, she is unfiltered with a side of her edgy sarcasm. With Felix, she’s mostly nostalgic, which I get. To Harry, she’s kind and a role model so her language shifts almost entirely but we still see some of her edgy spark now and then. To Theodore, her letters are brief when he was just a neighbour, and later they turn into a comfort when he becomes a friend. To unimportant people, she’s her sassy, if not rude and sarcastic, but brilliant self. With the authors, she can so easily write about her life because these same authors have written about theirs and published them into books! With the unsent letter, it’s more of an exploration of the deep feelings she may not be able to say out loud or confess to anyone. These were the most vulnerable kind, where she didn’t need to sound smart or kind or selfless or be a wife or a mother or a working woman. She was just a human being.

When it’s a septuagenarian protagonist, you always feel that they will be warm and loving, but if that’s the only thing you think about Sybil, you’d be mistaken. Because with each letter, a new facet of her character opens itself to us, and we’re always left stunned and in awe of her.

The reason that this novel will stay with me goes beyond than just these reasons. As I read through the book, the years went by page after page. It felt like I was a part of her life and I could actually see a life LIVED through mere 270-odd pages. A life lived. Somehow the readers age alongside her without aging at all. The writing is so powerful that we can feel that loss of a child, we can feel the helplessness of strained relationships, we can feel the inability to respond to a letter until it’s too late, we feel the letting go of guilt, we feel the loss of all the people who had to live their life without their loved ones, we feel the sense of mortality dooming over us, we feel and we feel and we feel. But in all these feelings, we also know that that’s exactly the point of living, because what would we be without being able to feel and express ourselves? 😊

I have rated The Correspondent by Virginia Evans at 5/5 stars, and I think you should read it!

~~BOOKS MENTIONED IN THE BOOK~~

State of Wonder by Ann Patchett

Bell Canto by Ann Patchett

Run by Ann Patchett

Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese 

Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie 

Crossing to Safety by Wallace Stegner 

Blue Nights by Joan Didion 

Mary Poppins by P. L. Travers 

The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie 

Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro 

Ulysses by James Joyce 

The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro 

The Orphan Master’s Son by Adam Johnson 

84 Charring Cross Road by Helene Hanff 

Travels with Charlie by John Steinbeck 

The Space Trilogy by C. S. Lewis

The Chronicles of Narnia by C. S. Lewis 

The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien 

The Emperor of All Maladies by Siddhartha Mukherjee 

Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier

The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion 

The Foundation series by Isaac Asimov 

Inferno by Dan Brown 

The Round House by Louise Erdrich 

Outlander by Diana Gabaldon

Stoner by John Williams 

The World Below by Sue Miller

To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf 

Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte 

Code by Eavan Boland (Poem mentioned: Quarantine) 

Amongst Women by John McGahern

That They May Face the Rising Sun by John McGahern

The Stories of William Trevor by William Trevor 

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry

The White Album by Joan Didion

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo series by Stieg Larsson

Authors mentioned: Isaac Asimov, James Joyce, W.B. Yeats, Samuel Beckett

Until next time,