The #1 New York Times bestseller · BBC Radio 2 Book Club Pick · The Times Best Books of 2025 · Over 30,000 five-star Goodreads reviews.
"84 Charing Cross Road meets A Man Called Ove" — the word-of-mouth sensation that thousands of readers are calling their favourite book of the year.
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.
At seventy-three, Sybil has used her correspondence — witty and wise, sharp and tender — to make sense of the world. But beyond the page, she has spent the last thirty years keeping the people who love her at arm's length.
Until letters from someone in her past force her to examine one of the most painful periods of her life. To begin to fix her difficult relationships with her children. To take a final chance at romance. To atone for an old legal case that has come back to haunt her. And finally, to reckon with a devastating loss she has spent thirty years holding close to her chest.
Praise
"This novel is a cause for celebration." — Ann Patchett
"I was delighted and moved… Masterful." — The New York Times
"I can't praise it enough. It's an absolute triumph." — Clare Chambers, author of Small Pleasures
"A warm, funny gem of a novel." — The Times, Best Books of 2025
"Tremendous." — Fredrik Backman, author of A Man Called Ove
About the author
Virginia Evans grew up in Pittsburgh, earned an MFA from Spalding University, and lives in North Carolina with her husband and three children. The Correspondent is her debut novel and has become an international word-of-mouth phenomenon — a #1 New York Times bestseller, a BBC Radio 2 Book Club pick, and one of The Times Best Books of 2025.
