The Correspondent - Virginia Evans - ★★★.½

AUTHOR: Virginia Evans

GENRE: Epistolary Novel

PUBLICATION DATE: April 29, 2025

RATING: 3.5 stars.

In a Nutshell: An epistolary novel with a geriatric woman in the lead. Realistic and complex character development, which is a surprise considering how we see the story only through letters. Character-driven, obviously. Too many themes. But a commendable debut. Recommended, though not with much gusto. Go in blind.

Plot Preview:

Maryland, USA. Sybil Van Antwerp. Seventy-three at the start of the story. Mother, grandmother, retired legal clerk, divorced. Sybil has always loved writing letters. Whether to known people such as family members, friends, and acquaintances, or to professional connections such as work associates and customer service agents, or to strangers such as famous politicians and authors, Sybil never stops writing. Her preferred mode of communication is the actual physical letter, though she does use emails when there is no other option. At her age, she doesn’t expect many alterations to her routine. But some unexpected developments force her to confront a painful period from her past.

The story comes to us through various letters written by and to Sybil from 2012 onwards.

As this is an epistolary novel, it covers quite a number of characters and subplots, not all of which are revealed in the initial 10-20%. As such, the above preview doesn’t indicate the actual depth of the storyline. It is best to go in blind for this story. My review is spoiler-free, despite its length.

Bookish Yays:

💌 The tiny preface, setting the foundation for Sybil’s character. The only non-epistolary part of the book, but a much-needed introduction of the key character.

💌 The characters other than Sybil. We see some of them only mentioned in others’ letters, while the rest are more active contributors to the book by writing to Sybil. Good and not-so-good, relatives and strangers, young and old, these characters cover a fairly wide range of human beings. I like how we get to know many of them well even though we see them only in bits and pieces through what they choose to write or what is written about them.

💌 As Sybil is a reader and interacts with other readers, there are frequent mentions of books and authors. She even has a regular correspondence with some well-known authors.

💌 The epistles. Always sounding like letters, always heartfelt, always detailed. Most of Sybil’s letters are written in a classic and elegant formal style. These offer the true sense of reading an epistolary novel. The letters come from multiple sources, and replies are not always present. But this adds to the mystique of the story.

💌 Character-driven, as is the case with epistolary novels. Fans of plot-oriented novels might struggle a bit, but I like character-oriented storytelling, so I enjoyed this aspect.

💌 The way a person’s realisations, realignments, and regrets are revealed only through letters. Beautifully handled, with many emotions and plenty of humour as well.

💌 Many thought-provoking and quotable quotes. This one was my favourite: " I know you think of me as your mother only, but please remember, inside I am also just a girl."

Bookish Okays:

📮 Sybil. Neither a vulnerable old lady nor a cantankerous meddler. But also not always likeable or sensible. She’s the kind of person who is concerned about outsiders but is either ignorant of or indifferent to her own family’s requirements. She even makes racist comments in one letter. (It was anti-Indian, so I was taken extra-aback at that unexpected remark.) Basically, if you want your leads to be likeable, Sybil might not be your type of person. But she is a convincing old lady, flaws and all. And there is some growth in her character at the end.

📮 The story covers quite a lengthy time span, from 2012 till more than a decade ahead. You need to keep track not just of the correspondence dates but also of the key characters’ advancing ages. Some of the letters aren’t in chronological order.

📮 With multiple letters come multiple characters. The start is especially confusing with too many characters mentioned within a few letters. But things ease after a while as familiarity increases.

📮 There are strong political opinions in a few letters. This wasn’t a big bother for me as my views matched the views expressed. But some readers are sure to be bugged by this unexpected inclusion.

📮 While the letters handle many excellent themes and even highlight how it’s never too late to learn and to make recompense, the fact also is that there are too many disparate themes. The ‘kitchen sink’ of themes, which always creates trouble for debut authors, is overflowing in this one.

📮 One of the letters by Sybil is an unsent one, but she keeps adding to it. This probably makes it count more as a journal entry addressed to someone than as a letter. The identity of the recipient was guessable to me, and the confirmation of my guess led to some unanswered doubts. Regardless, this was an interesting way of letting us see Sybil’s inner thoughts.

Bookish Nays:

📧 Two of the developments weren’t to my liking. Both are major spoilers, so I can’t go into these. But suffice it to say, one of these is a current fictional trend that simply doesn’t appeal to me, and the other is an apology that simply shouldn’t have been offered because what originally happened was just and fair.

📧 The cover. I get that the songbirds represent the letter-writing between Sybil and her closest friend, the only person who has the guts to tell Sybil when she’s going wrong. But this is such a limited part of the book. I don’t think this cover represents the book accurately. In fact, I didn’t even pay attention to the book until I saw a friend’s GR update with another cover (image below), one that suits the book much better IMHO. This cover is too dull in comparison.

Overall, while I wasn’t blown away by the book (I have read enough epistolary novels to not be in awe of them), I still liked it a lot. The layered characters and their true-to-life behaviour compensated for the overload of themes and the two unnecessary plot inclusions. Plus, all of us who have been alive long enough to know the joy of receiving and writing a handwritten letter will feel quite nostalgic about the letters in this story.

This has been promoted as a debut work, and even nominated for “Readers' Favorite Debut Novel” in the Goodreads Choice Awards 2025. However, the author has self-published a novel a decade ago. I guess self-publishing isn't counted as publishing, because even the author’s website and social media has no reference to that first book. It is mentioned only on Goodreads and in a few newspaper articles about this novel. Strange.

I think this is the kind of book that might work better on a reread, as the advantage of hindsight can help keep track of the clues we missed the first time around. If you haven’t yet experienced a proper epistolary novel, this is a good one to begin with, keeping in mind that reading epistolary novels needs more concentration than ordinary novels. Also note that this isn't a light read. Though it has only letters, many of the inclusions are potentially upsetting. Do check the content warnings.

The audiobook supposedly has a full-cast narration, so I am sure it will be a great way of experiencing this novel. However, considering the abundance of characters and letters and dates, I wouldn’t recommend the audio version to audio newbies.

Recommended, though not with as much gusto as some of my GR friends. To appreciate this book, you need to be fond of character-driven writing and preferably of epistolary novels as well. Not for those looking for fast-paced or plot-driven storytelling.

My thanks to Crown Publishing for providing the DRC of “The Correspondent” via NetGalley. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.

Content Warnings: (Major Spoilers Below.)

Infertility, miscarriage, child death, illness, aging, adoption, potential blindness, parent-child relationship issues, death of loved ones, suicide attempt, animal death, car accidents, cancer, refugee issues.