Ink, Regret, and Redemption: A Life Told in Letters

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Absolutely one of the best books I read in 2025.

In The Correspondent, Virginia Evans introduces Sybil Van Antwerp, a 73-year-old retired law clerk whose life is stitched together through letters. Each morning at half past ten, she writes—to family, to old colleagues, to authors she admires like Joan Didion and Larry McMurtry—and to one person from her past whose letter she has never quite managed to send. Through these exchanges, we see a woman who prefers the safety of the written word to the unpredictability of conversation.

Sybil assumes her orderly world will continue as it always has. She has been many things—mother, grandmother, wife, divorcee, respected legal mind—and she wears those roles with quiet pride. But when correspondence from long ago resurfaces, it nudges open a door she has kept firmly shut. Old wounds demand acknowledgment, and the letter she has been drafting in fragments over the years begins to feel less optional and more necessary.

Wise, funny, and deeply moving, this novel explores the hubris of youth, the clarity of age, and the solace found in literature and human connection. Sybil’s life of letters may seem small on the surface, but she might just be one of the most memorable characters you’ll meet all year. The Correspondent certainly makes one long for the days of snail mail!