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Book of the Month

Meeting March 23rd, 2026

The Correspondent by Virginia Evans (2025)

The Correspondent is a contemporary epistolary novel by Virginia Evans that tells its story entirely through letters and written correspondence. The novel follows Sybil Van Antwerp, a retired lawyer in her seventies whose carefully composed letters reveal her sharp wit, strong opinions, private regrets, and enduring capacity for connection.

Through exchanges with friends, family members, authors, and others from her past and present, the book gradually builds an intimate portrait of a woman reflecting on her life while still actively shaping it. The story explores themes of aging, loneliness, forgiveness, intellectual passion, and the ways people try to make sense of their choices over time.

Written with warmth and insight, the novel celebrates the art of letter writing and the power of language to both conceal and reveal truth. Its reflective tone and layered character study make it especially well suited for book club discussion, inviting readers to consider how we present ourselves to others and what remains unsaid.
Virginia Evans is an American novelist originally from the East Coast of the United States who studied English literature at James Madison University and later earned a master’s degree in creative writing from Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland. She wrote The Correspondent largely as a personal project without expecting to publish it, and it went on to become a New York Times bestseller and one of the breakout literary hits of 2025. Evans lives in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, with her husband, two children, and their dog, and her work reflects a deep interest in human connection, language, and how people make sense of their lives through writing.
Book Club Questions – The Correspondent by Virginia Evans (2025)

  1. What score would you give the novel out of 10?

  2. The novel is told through letters, how did that format shape your understanding of the story and the correspondent’s character? Did it make things feel more intimate or more controlled?

  3. How reliable do you think the correspondent is? Were there moments you doubted their version of events?

  4. What do you think motivates the correspondent to write these letters now? Is it confession, closure, control, loneliness, something else?

  5. Did your feelings toward the correspondent change as the story unfolded? If so, what caused that shift?

  6. How does the book explore the idea of memory, as truth, distortion or self-protection?

  7. What role does silence play in the novel? Who benefits from what is left unsaid?

  8. Do you think the correspondent is seeking forgiveness? And if so, do they deserve it?

  9. What do the letters reveal about power dynamics between the writer and the recipient?

  10. How did you feel about the ending, satisfying, unsettling, ambiguous? What do you think the author wanted us to sit with?

  11. If you could ask the correspondent one direct question and they had to answer honestly, what would you ask?
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