If you enjoy epistolary novels, I urge you to pick up "The Correspondent" by Virginia Evans. Told exclusively through letters from and to Sybil Van Antwerp, we learn the story of a life which includes being adopted, losing a child, divorce, work issues, new love, struggles with siblings and adult children, and finally reconciliation.
Sybil is a prolific letter writer - it is her preferred method of communication - to everyone! Sybil writes family members, friends, famous authors, employees, and through her letters you get a peak at her life, her fears, and her guilt.
I found myself getting really angry with Sybil over her inability to communicate directly with those she loved, but in the end, I enjoyed the journey of getting to know her. While reading the letters, you discover that Sybil is going blind - which makes her frantic letter writing even more important. Loved the Annapolis and Maryland settings, too.

Virginia Evans book THE CORRESPONDENT was that rare book that felt as if my alternative self might have lived the story of the mid-life woman who has a lifelong habit of writing letters turned on its head when a letter arrives for her and upsets an orderly, staid, pleasant enough existence. I related to the woman. Her quiet habits and reflections are pleasures to read as was this entire, quiet and shattering story. I received a copy of this book and these thoughts are my own, unbiased opinions.

I love a unique storytelling perspective, and that's what these letters were. I especially loved that it was a blend of letters to/from loved ones, as well as letters to authors. I loved how much story was conveyed and how Sybil's character was built through the story. This is one that was an emotional read as secrets and truths were revealed, but so beautifully told through its letters. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the look at this April 2025 release!

♡ Thank you for the free ARC, Crown Publishing and NetGalley.

Take all of my stars, author Virginia Evans! Wow, what a debut and memorable epistolary novel. I pre-ordered a copy for my home library promptly after finishing the ARC since it touched my heart. I love a story with a mature and feisty main character. Although Sybil was flawed and I wished she had handled a few things differently, I found her very human and relatable, which is what left me in tears. This book had so much depth, with themes that include communication, loneliness, identity, aging, mental health, trauma, healing, and forgiveness. This is one that I will be thinking about for some time.

I wish I could remember how I first learned of this book because I’d like to give them credit for bringing me a five star read! This was my most anticipated book of the month and it absolutely delivered. It checked so many of my boxes: epistolary novel, debut author, brought me to tears.

73 year old Sybil Van Antwerp starts most days at her writing desk, penning letters to her brother, friends, even famous authors. Through the correspondence we learn so much about Sybil’s life - her family, her heartache, her literary preferences. Despite seeming set in her ways, we see growth and softening of Sybil throughout the letters. I dare you to read this and not cry.

Gorgeous novel! I don't normally go for the epistolary genre, but here it was absolutely perfect.
We get the bits about Sybil's life that weave together a great story, and everything that is missing may not be so important for the narrative.
A wonderful read and a refreshing format.

Thank you, NetGalley and Crown Publishing, for providing an advanced reader's copy in exchange for my honest review. The book is out on April 29.

Absolutely adored this book and I'm so glad NetGalley recommended it to me.
This is the story of Sybil Van Antwerp, told through her letters, email and other various correspondence through her entire life. Sybil writes letters to everyone, her children, her best friend, favorite authors, a young pen pal, her neighbors, etc.
There is one letter that she never sends and through these unsent missives you can really gather who Sybil is and how, although older, you're never too old to change. A life well-lived and a woman well-loved.

*Special thanks to NetGalley and Crown for this digital e-arc.*

A wonderful read!
This novel drew me in from the very first page and kept me hooked until the end. The characters were vibrant and relatable, the writing was engaging, and the story had just the right balance of heart and humor. Highly recommend!
Many thanks to NetGalley, the author, and the publisher for my ARC. All opinions are my own.

I'm generally not a fan of epistolary novels, but the summary of this one intrigued me.
Alas, I was not a huge fan. Though the writing was engaging, I did not care for Sybil. Furthermore, it was at times confusing who was writing which letter.
I received an ARC from netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

The Correspondent gives a peek into Sybil Van Antwerp's life through the letters she sends and received. It's a quiet, thoughtful book that will work for a lot of people. The writing is solid and introspective. Sybil is a compelling character who is figuring out how to navigate various life events.

But it didn't work for me. I spent much of the book confused - we don't always know who is writing a letter until pages later, the letters are not chronological (so you have to really pay attention to dates), and it seems like we don't always get to read all correspondence.

The Correspondent ended up being an unexpected pleasure for me. When I first started reading it, I was a bit dismayed that I was not enjoying the epistolary format, although the letters were written in such a way that they maintained a cohesive narrative and developed the main character's personality very well. However, about a quarter of the way through this novel, I became fascinated by how much I was enjoying the letters and looking forward to them as much as if they were written to me. I think the emotional context of this book is masterful, and the character's continual development incredibly engaging. I highly recommend this book to anyone who often ponders the events and mysteries in their lives that have shaped them in the past and continue to shape them in the present and future. Older readers may enjoy it more than younger ones, but there are certainly many lessons for anyone who reads this book. My sincere thanks to NetGalley and Crown Publishing for an ARC of this book. It quickly became one of my favorites!

Thank you Crown Publishing for this arc.

I love a good epistolary novel and this is a chef’s kiss of one. It is beautiful and painful. At times I wanted to shake Sybil but I also understand her a bit and know a few people like her.

It takes a little while to get settled into Sybil’s life and be able to easily follow who is writing to her and to whom she is writing. These characters have flaws and scars. They’ve made mistakes, been misunderstood, have suffered from the actions of others, and all of them felt real to me. Through these letters and occasionally emails (though Sybil prefers old fashioned pen and paper correspondence) we see past, present and future.

Sybil is smart but also stubborn and set in her ways at times. In the book, she writes several letters to authors many of whom write back to her. In one she tells Larry McMurtry that on rereading “Lonesome Dove” (for the third time), in her old age she now sees that McMurtry had the courage to do awful things to his characters. Well, some awful things get revealed about Sybil – especially in regards to her daughter and her best friend/SIL. She has hurt people and it takes her a long time to truly realize it and deal with the consequences.

Often Sybil acts with defensiveness in the face of some accusations. Few people can avoid this instinctive reaction and in Sybil this can turn into somewhat self righteous lashing out. But writing her the way she’s been written took guts and I think makes her a character with depth. When she finally faces past actions and tells some secrets, the impact is all the more forceful and powerful.

I had a feeling about to whom Sybil was writing her long, unfinished letter. The revelations about this character are wrenching.


We don’t see everything about all the threads of Sybil’s writing. But there’s enough there to follow the flow of these lives. There are things that Sybil writes or does that might cause readers to flinch. She can be intolerant. I paused a time or two but kept going and was rewarded with Sybil’s eventual self reflection and character growth. She does apologize for a lot of things that her belief in black or white, cut and dried, right or wrong led her to do. But I didn’t feel that she copped out or just made a gesture to soothe troubled waters as this is definitely something I don’t think she could ever do. It’s just not in her nature.

Readers might, at times, have to grit their teeth at Sybil. Her realization of past wrongs she’s done and willingness to make amends is, at times, decades in the making. She has reasons for her feelings and personality. Her achievement of grace is a moving thing to read. Sybil won’t be for everyone, I’ll be honest about that. Yet once I fell into her life, I was hooked. B+

Oh dear. I was bored.

Listen, I usually applaud creative storytelling methods. I often enjoy epistoliary stories told through letter writing and correspondence.

But I did not like Sybil, and I soon tired of reading her letters.

There was some drama. There was some intrigue. But nothing that kept my interest.

"You get the one life. It's awfully unfair, isn't it?"

Oh I love an epistolary novel! Sybil starts each morning sitting down to her desk for her correspondence - whether it’s writing letters to her best friend/sister in law or to an author whose work touched her.

I loved learning about Sybil’s life through the letters she shared. This is a book about grief and love and family and forgiveness. I would definitely recommend. Thank you to the publisher for the gifted ebook.

I thoroughly enjoyed this beautiful story, which the author has uniquely and refreshingly crafted through the letter writing of our main character, 70-something Sybil. Since childhood, Sybil has faithfully written letters - to friends, family, authors, and anyone she has a gripe with. Now that she is retired and alone, this routine is a lifeline and a major routine in her days. Over the course of the book, we come to know Sybil's life story, her relationships, her personality, her hopes and fears, and her regrets.
This book is both heartwarming and bittersweet. Just lovely!
Thank you to NetGalley for this advance copy.

Life, loss and literature as seen through a woman's letters

At the age of 73, Sybil Van Antwerp is or has been many things...an adopted child, a wife and mother, a legal clerk for an accomplished judge, and a lover of literature to name just a few. She is a woman of strong opinions who doesn't always filter them to the degree that others might like, and finds that she communicates best with those in her life through letters rather than direct conversation. Things are becoming more challenging for her at this point in her life....she is starting to lose her eyesight (though she's not inclined to share that with her family or friends), she may have a stalker connected to a past period of her life, and her always-strained relationship with her daughter is at a breaking point. Through the letters she writes to family, friends, authors of books she has enjoyed, and in some cases people with whom she just plain has a bone to pick, a sense of who Sybil is emerges as does a hint of what her future might hold.
It is always a gift to open a book by an author and know within the first few pages that I am about to meet a character who will spring fully to life as the book unfolds, and The Correspondent is just such a book. Sybil can be a bit judgmental, at times cranky, and definitely has layers that she keeps close to her chest, reminding me of author Elizabeth Strout's Olive Kitteridge. As the other people in her life...her brother Felix, Harry the son of a friend who struggles to fit in with the world, her best friend and former sister-in-law Rosalie, and so many others...appear through the letters they exchange with Sybil, Sybil's past is made clearer to the reader. A tragic loss, a divorce, and a career to which she devoted much of her life yet whose value she now questions are intertwined with book recommendations to friends and letters sent to authors whose work she admires (I'll be honest, so many of the books and authors she mentions are ones that I have loved that it made me feel like a kindred spirit at least in a literary sense). I don't know if I would want Sybil as a parent or close family member, but I am certain that I would thoroughly enjoy being someone with whom she would exchange letters. Author Virginia Evans explores the challenges of aging and the intricacies of human interactions with humor and compassion, and has woven a beguiling story with a protagonist who makes a difference in the many lives she touches and whom I won't soon forget. Readers who enjoyed Helene Hanff's 84, Charing Cross Road or who are fans of Ann Patchett, Alice Hoffman and the aforementioned Elizabeth Strout should waste no time in securing a copy of this gem of a novel. Many thanks to NetGalley and Crown Publishing for allowing me access to this superbly crafted novel in exchange for my honest review.

I can’t recommend Virginia Evans’ novel, The Correspondent, highly enough. If you like epistolary novels with a depth of character, meet Sybil Van Antwerp.

Sybil is retired from practicing law. She’s divorced, a mother and grandmother who lives in Annapolis, Maryland. And, she writes letters, to friends, relatives, and authors who move her. She’s a reader who writes to Joan Didion, Ann Patchett, Diana Gabaldon, and Larry McMurtry. In 2012, she’s seventy-three. Her letters allow her the opportunity to explore her friendships, her own history. But, it will still be a few years before Sybil can confront her own past, and the impact some of her actions had on others.

Although her son, Bruce, lives nearby and visits, Sybil’s relationship with her daughter, Fiona, is fraught. Fiona lives in London, and both women have kept secrets from each other. They haven’t been close for years. When Sybil and her husband divorced, Fiona chose to move to Belgium with her father. Despite her writing habits, Sybil and Fiona can’t communicate.

As we see over the years, Sybil does try to open herself up to others, including her sister-in-law, a young boy, the troubled son of a former colleague, and even a foreigner working in tech for a website. But, it takes years for Sybil to open up and be truthful with herself.

The Correspondent is really a novel about life, about aging, illness, and how we end up where we do. We get to know Sybil, but wonder about the unfinished letter she writes for years, and never sends. There are family problems, health issues, death. There are men in Sybil’s life, even as she reaches seventy-eight, a retired lawyer, and the neighbor. Evans does an excellent job developing them and their characters, although we see them through Sybil’s eyes. Sybil also reveals the sexism that influenced her career in the law, and the sexism that still plays a part in academia.

I don’t know how to summarize this beautiful story. At it’s heart, it’s about life, the impact we have on others. It’s about changing relationships, and changes in ourselves. It’s a beautiful novel.

This book is a compilation of letters. Letters sent and letters received. It centers around Sybil who is an avid letter writer. Her missives weave together a history of events and stories of various people she corresponds with and forms an interesting and intriguing story.
I loved how the author took many very different stories and told them through letters. It was interesting to see how Sybil wrote with a different voice to all her correspondents. Sometimes she was soft, sometimes she was motherly, and sometimes she was introspective. And it was always engaging.
This is a must read. And I bet you want to hand write a letter to someone when you finish.
Enjoy!

I love stories written letter or diary form, so this was a no brainer for me. The story comes together through these letters to friends. The characters are fantastic. This is a wonderful coming of age story and I think it will really appeal to book clubs.

The beauty of epistolary literature is that the reader participates a historian looking for clues and revelling in getting to know characters piecemeal. I love that the lead character, Sybil van Antwerp, is the ultimate correspondent, sending letters to family, friends, acquaintances, famous people. I also appreciate the timeliness of Evan's novel: the correspondent is a dying breed. But what day-to-day loveliness, what intimate contact, what grief, what frustration, can be written about and shared in letters? And most are not via email, but handwritten and posted and put into a mailbox.

The other beauty of this novel is moving through life as an older person, one whose body is no longer as functional as it was, one who has practice in the art of losing people, one who has seen some things and experienced the joy and tribulations of a long life, but whose mind is as crisp as a fresh apple.

I wonder if you, like me, will be inspired to take up a pen and write someone (or simply reach out and contact an old friend) after reading this novel.

Many thanks to Crown and NetGalley for access to the advanced copy. I am not compensated for my review.