The Correspondent

by Virginia Evans

Most mornings, Sybil sits down to write letters—to her brother, to her best friend, to the president of the university who will not allow her to audit a class she desperately wants to take, to Joan Didion and Larry McMurtry to tell them what she thinks of their latest books, and to one person to whom she writes often yet never sends the letter. She used the letters to make sense of the world and her place in it. But when letters from someone in her past force her to examine one of the most painful periods of her life, she realizes that she cannot move forward until she finds it in her heart to offer forgiveness. 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. It is about the hubris of youth and the wisdom of old age, and the mistakes and acts of kindness that occur during a lifetime.