Summer 2026:
The Correspondent
by Virginia Evans
““Imagine, the letters one has sent out to the world, letters received back in turn, are like the pieces of a magnificent puzzle, or, a better metaphor, if dated, the links to a long chain, and even if those links are never put back together, which they certainly never will be, even if they remain for the rest of time dispersed across the earth like the fragile blown seeds of a dying dandelion, isn’t there something wonderful in that, to think that a story of one’s life is preserved in some way, that this very letter may one day mean something, even if it is a very small thing, to someone?””
This summer we have chosen, "The Correspondent" by Virginia Evans which turned out to be a stunner. I learned of this book through a book review I read in the newspaper when it was a new release in 2025. What I read about the book was interesting so I added the title to the list of books I might want to read later on. Fast forward to March 2026, we had recently learned of the upcoming change in the books I can receive on Texas death row. As of April 1, 2026, I can no longer receive hardback books. Nor can I receive used books. From now on, I can only receive new paperback books. This means no more new releases (hardbacks) and no used books (half the cost, or less of a new book) which ultimately means less books for me to read.
Me and Ali were discussing this and were trying to send any books I might be interested in reading before the new rules went into effect and I asked her if she'd heard about The Correspondent? She had heard of it and the ratings were very good on it. So she sent it.
I didn't know what to expect from The Correspondent. How would it work? How would the story that the book contained be told? I was curious and excited to have these questions answered.
I began reading The Correspondent in the evening time and from the first page was hooked. I read until 2am devouring half of the book. Woke the next morning and read nonstop until I finished this 281 page book in two settings. The Correspondent is a real stunner! It was so good and addictive that I could not put it down. For those two days I lived in the world the book contained.
The story is told through the correspondence ( handwritten letters she has penned all of her life) of the main character, Sybil Van Antwerp, a distinguished retired attorney. She writes her brother, daughter, friends, judges, children, authors, journalists, editors, anyone she feels the need to write. Sybil is delightful, brilliant, funny, stubborn, and like the rest of us, flawed. I was immediately sucked into Sybil's world and all that was swirling around her. I loved it.
I must say that I identified with Sybil and her lifetime spent corresponding. I've been incarcerated since 1998, during that time I've been limited to communicating with the outside world through writing letters. Until December 2022 (when I was given a Securus computer tablet with an Emessage app) I was restricted to corresponding via penned or typed (on an ancient typewriter that I still have) letters.
Because of this I share Sybil's love and appreciation for the art of corresponding and was amazed at her exquisitely crafted letters that rise to the level of works of art. There were many times while reading this book that I thought, "man, I wish I could write like that!"
There is something wonderful about creating a relationship through correspondence. The letters act as a buffer between you and the person you are writing, allowing you to write things you would never say in person. Soon enough you will know things about your correspondent that few if anyone else knows about them. Through the exchange of letters you and the other person create a universe that only you two can access and dwell in. This kind of connection with another soul is rare, unique and special.
I have been writing letters for 28 years, half my lifetime. Through correspondence I have met the best friends that I have ever had in my life. After nearly three decades of becoming friends with others via correspondence, it has not gotten old. I still want to meet new friends, begin new journeys that hopefully will be adventures and lead to becoming true friends with others.
The Correspondent has two mysteries that are uncovered as the reader moves through the book. The first arises from Sybil's past work life, the other comes from her personal life and is a secret she has never shared with anyone. Both are heartbreakingly immense.
Sybil is also a voracious reader who is always reading a carefully selected book. When she writes the author Larry McMurtry, she notes that "I take great care with my reading selections now, knowing my years of reading are coming to an end."
That sentence had a profound effect upon me.
It made me imagine what it would be like to know that my years of reading are coming to an end. What would I choose to read? New books? My old favorites maybe? Would I mourn what I am going to lose? Or would I want to read day an night? I am still thinking about that question.
In her letters Sybil or her correspondents comment on what they are reading. There are close to thirty books mentioned. There are at least ten books that I would love to read. I think that the books Virginia Evans chose to mention in her book will be worth reading. I'm happy to announce that we plan on using some of these selections for bookclub for the rest of the year 2026.
Through Sybil the author addresses essential human emotions, love, hate, grief, joy, and what means to be alive. Again, I identified with Sybil and her experiences. Despite being on Texas death row, I know what it's like to love another and not be able to touch them. I know what it's like to experience the death of a loved one. The manner in which Sybil writes about these themes is exquisite. The writing is so, so good in this book. I really was touched by this and continue to ponder the questions and observations shared through the characters in The Correspondent. I have read the book three times since March, so I am thinking about it quite a bit.
In a letter to a friend named Mick, Sybil shares the importance of letter writing. She says:
“Imagine all the commentary you have exchanged with friends, colleagues close family and distant relatives. All the prattle sent over email, text on cell phones, the sum of this interpersonal communication is the substance of our lives, relationships being, as we know in our old ages, the meat of our lives but all of that is gone. Vanished!
And one day you yourself will be gone. Perhaps if you have children, they will remember you if you have grandchildren, they, God allowing, may also retain a few fragments of memory including you, but their children will not. They may keep some old photos in a book on a shelf, and perhaps two or three time in a lifetime may turn the page and find your face and think, Ah yes, doesn’t Jimmy resemble this great-great-grandfather Mick, and continue to turn the page, and so that will be what is left of you, nearly erased, in fewer than three generations, and your life, the life you see from the inside right now, as monumental, will be reduced to the blood in their veins and perhaps, if you are lucky, a distant namesake, a name plucked from the family tree that has come back in vogue after seventy-odd years as fashionable things tend to do and slapped on a newborn baby who will know nothing of YOU! And yet, if one has committed oneself to the page, the tragedy I’ve laid out will not apply.”
Oh! That is so good and has made ME pick up a pen and paper, to write the odd letter to those I care about. I think that says all that needs to be said about The Correspondent and why it is worthy of us reading it in our Words That Sustain Me Book Club.