This moving novel unfurls its truths one letter at a time, filling in a complex and memorable picture of one woman’s life. Subtly told and finely made, the correspondent is a portrait of a small life expanding Sybil expects her world to go on as it always has
Fapellas / Page 93
A mother, grandmother, wife, divorcée, distinguished lawyer, she has lived a full life.
Virginia evans’ the correspondent tells the story of the life of sybil van antwerp
Written through the letters sybil writes and receives, we learn about her beginnings, who she was and who she’d hoped to be as well as her endings and who she could not be. Sybil has retired from a beloved job as chief clerk to a judge with whom she had previously been in private legal practice. 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. “the superbly talented virginia evans has written a novel of connection and daring, the correspondent herself, sybil van antwerp, is a single lady of a certain age, who finds the meaning of her life and those she loves (and doesn’t) through letter writing.
The correspondent by virginia evans unfolds as a dazzling tapestry of letters, emails, and unsent drafts—all the written traces of a life at the cusp of change. The correspondent by virginia evans is a touching exploration of aging, family dynamics, and the deep emotional layers that define human relationships. “the correspondent” was mentioned as one of her top ten on her july 3 show, best books of the year (so far) with hunter mclendon This delightful epistolatory (fancy word meaning “told through letters”) novel shows readers the world through the perspective of retired attorney sybil van antwerp.
