The Correspondent by Virginia Evans — a #1 New York Times bestseller and winner of the Women’s Prize for Fiction. The word-of-mouth debut hailed by Ann Patchett as “a cause for celebration.”
Sybil Van Antwerp has spent a lifetime making sense of the world through letters. Most mornings, around half past ten, she sits down to write — to her brother, to her best friend, to authors she admires, to a university president who will not let her audit a class, and to one person to whom she writes often but never sends the letter.
A retired lawyer living alone in Maryland, Sybil is a mother, grandmother, divorcée, and correspondent of uncommon sharpness. She expects her days to continue as they always have. Then letters from her past force her to look again at one of the most painful chapters of her life. If she is going to move forward, the unsent letter may finally have to be read — and forgiveness may have to be offered.
Told through letters and emails, this intimate novel is about the power of the written word, the beauty of slowing down, and the connections we keep with people we love — and people we may never meet. It is about youth and age, mistakes and kindness, literature as solace, and a life fully lived.
Over two million copies sold. In development as a major motion picture.
Winner of the Women’s Prize for Fiction
