The Correspondent: A Novel

So good! Sybil Van Antwerp is hiding a secret about her son’s death. She’s pushed everyone away in life, but she maintains a robust correspondence via letters and emails.

A great flowing story.

I love this book and was so sad for it to end.

The later-in-life musings and regrets of a successful career woman, all told through the device of letters and email. At first, I wondered if I was going to stick with it - e.g., when are we going to get to the storytelling? Then about a quarter of the way into it, I realized the correspondence became the story, and I quite looked forward to opening each letter or email - often flipping forward a few pages to see who it was from. How clever! Sometimes Sophia’s hard-headed nature got on my nerves as she came across as a cold mother and wife. No wonder she lived alone in the autumn of her years, right? But when the deep-seated reasons start to be unveiled, she evokes sympathy. The repercussions of her choices in life don’t make her bitter or unteachable. Instead, she starts to allow others in, and begins to learn from her mistakes, before it’s too late.

I’m not usually a fan of books that are written in an epistolary format. However, The Correspondent is a beautifully woven story that left me thinking for days after finishing it. The audio version is especially well done.