The Correspondent: The Story Behind the Unexpected Bestseller Everyone is Reading

0:00Have you read The Correspondent? Everybody's talking about this book. The Correspondent was one of my favorite books last year. My goodness, I love this book. I love Sybil and so profoundly good. This book pulled itself to the top of the bestsellers list through word of mouth. That does not happen. This is your first published novel. But it's the eighth one you've written and you wrote this book inside a closet thinking nobody would ever read it. How did you handle each rejection? Oh, gosh. At some point, do you think, well, maybe I'm just not good? I don't think I ever thought that. Most people have said to me, this book made me cry, and it felt so good.

0:44Hi there, and welcome to The Oprah Podcast. I'm so glad to be here with you. When you love books as much as I do, you get recommendations, lots of recommendations. And there's one book in particular people kept asking me about. Have you read The Correspondent? You gotta read The Correspondent. You're gonna love The Correspondent. I had no choice but to read The Correspondent. And let me tell you, I'm so glad I did. Because the book tells the life story of Sybil Van Antwerp, a retired lawyer in her 70s, like I am, living in Maryland. Readers get to know Sybil and all her wonderful complexity and tangled past solely through letters and emails that she writes and receives.

1:29Sybil writes to family, to friends, to complete strangers. She even writes to famous authors who are really famous authors, even her own neighbors, each note revealing a different strand of the fabric of her life. It's what the literary world calls an epistolary novel composed of letters. And I must say, other than The Color Purple, which was Celie's letters to God, I'm not usually drawn to the epistolary form. But this book, The Correspondent, felt different. It felt bigger than one woman's letter writing. And it is obviously bigger because just through word of mouth, this book has put itself on the New York Times bestseller list.

2:13That is the goal for every author. And it's my pleasure to welcome you here. Thank you. It's my pleasure. The author of this profound book that everybody's talking about this book. Thank you. Thank you. It is my pleasure and honor to be here to talk to you about it. I'm so excited that you read it and that you liked it. Of course. I had to read it because everybody was saying, read it. Writer Virginia Evans had tried for years before finally getting her first book published, The Correspondent. When it was released in April 2025, it sold less than 8 ,000 copies. Then something remarkable happened.

2:48The thousands of people who read it, fell in love with it. Then they started recommending it to other people. And soon, word of mouth spread like wildfire. The correspondent has now sold well over 2 billion copies. A story about a woman in her 70s who in today's digital world still writes handwritten letters became an unexpected number one New York Times bestseller. Welcome Virginia Evans to my front porch. Thank you. Thank you. Could you feel or sense what was happening in the zeitgeist that one person was telling another person? Because this book sort of pulled itself to the top of the bestsellers list through word of mouth.

3:27That does not happen. That's what everybody keeps telling me. I do think I started to understand that that's what was happening, but I didn't. I'm not sure when that was. I'm not sure how that happened. I think you're right. It's just one person said to two other people to read it. and those two people told two more people. Before you know it. And it was this story. And so before we get into this absolutely, you know, captivating, compelling book, let's talk about you. This is your first published novel. That's right. Okay, but it's the eighth one you've written. Tell us about your 20-year journey to become an overnight success.

4:07I know it is funny. People said, you just came out of nowhere. I sort of think, no. I wasn't nowhere. I've been writing for 20 years For a long time, yes I started writing my first novel when I was 19 I was living in Italy, in Siena And I wrote, I started writing a novel there And then I wrote novels Kind of, you know, finished one It takes a few years And for the first few years I don't think I knew what you do I didn't come from a family of authors I didn't know any authors And so I would finish a book Had you taken a writing class? No. I mean, I took some writing classes in undergrad, but I wasn't, I didn't know what you do at the end.

4:46You know, you sort of have this book and I thought, okay, well, we'll do it again. So I was writing these books and then I started to teach myself. I bought a writer's almanac. You know, there was that big book. It was like the phone book. And, and I read about writing a query letter. And so then I tried writing a query letter and it wasn't very good and I didn't get any interest from agents. But then I think the next book, I had a better query letter and I, you know, I kind of kept going. And by the sixth book, I did get an agent and that I thought that was sort of the end. I sort of thought, OK, now I'll be now.

5:24Now this will actually happen. We worked together for a year and then it didn't work out and we parted ways. That was extremely crushing to have that happen. I was a mother by then and I thought that was it I thought that's what you did how did you handle each rejection oh gosh um you know it's interesting I don't think I ever felt offended or um indignant you know I don't think I thought well how dare you I just thought okay I have to do better I have to do a better I have to do a better job this isn't enough this doesn't cut it and that um was a motivator? I mean, it is a good question to ask because all those years were, it was very demoralizing.

6:10I mean, it was extremely demoralizing and I hit. I know. I mean, if I got turned down by one, that's why I never really became a full working actress because I remember going to a speech coach once and I said, I wanted to be an actress. This is when I was in news in Baltimore. And she said, my dear, you don't want to be an actress. You want to be a star because if you wanted to be an actress, you would be waiting tables right now in New York, but you don't want to give up your job in the news to do that. And I was like, no, you're right. I don't want to do that. And I said, I'm not going to be able to handle the rejection.

6:42You know, I have one of my girls from my school in South Africa who's an actress now and it's constant. It is. It is. It's something I don't know. You just have to sort of take it. You have to just keep taking it. I mean, hundred thousands of rejects. I don't know how many times I was rejected. I've queried every agent in New York City. It was agonizing. I mean, it was agonizing. So at some point, do you think, well, maybe I'm just not good? I don't think I ever thought that. Okay. At some point, do you think, well, maybe I'm not good enough? Yes. At some point, do you think, well, maybe this is never going to happen?

7:22Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. This is never going to happen. This is never going to happen. And I ended up kind of thinking I would like to teach. I wanted to teach in prisons. I wanted to teach writing in prisons. And so I thought I should go get a master's degree. That's what I should do. This was after the sixth book. And so... The sixth book that's been rejected. Yes. Okay. Yep. And so then we moved to Ireland, my husband and my two children, and I moved to Dublin. And I went to Trinity College for my master's. Yes. And I wrote my seventh novel as my coursework there. I studied with Claire Keegan. I studied with Claire.

7:58Yes. I mean, it was wonderful. And that book, the book I wrote as my coursework there, with that, I got another agent. And we thought this will, she said, this book will sell. This is a great book. It didn't sell. We had it out. Where all those books are now in your closet somewhere. Oh, they're on. Well, I've lost two hard drives. I never backed anything up. So I have one copy of every book, which is on a shelf in my house, you know, but now are, is your agent, cause you have an agent, obviously your agent is like, let's bring those books out. Yeah. There's a, we have a conversation about that pretty regularly, but so I, that book, the seventh book was out for sale.

8:40It wasn't selling. And then I wrote the correspondent and that was the, and you wrote this correspondent book inside a closet. I I understand, during the pandemic, thinking nobody would ever read it. So you had reached the point, Virginia, where you're like what Toni Morrison was at one point where she felt like, I'm going to write the book for myself. Maybe a few friends will read it, but I'm going to write because I now feel the need to write. I have to write. Is that where you were? Oh, yeah, that's exactly. I'm glad to hear that. That's exactly where I was. And I didn't think I wasn't going to show this book to anyone.

9:17I wasn't going to show it to my agent. She knew I was working on something, but I told her I'm cleansing my palate and then I'll write something else for you to sell. And this was what I was working on. And, and she kind of kept saying, you know, show it to me, show it to me. And I said, no, no, no. And she said, show it to me. And finally I did. And she said, we can sell this book. And I still didn't think it would sell. Okay. So because if I were you, I wouldn't think it would sell either having been turned down so many times. And so I understand you have a, How old are your children? Now they're 10 and 12.

9:48Okay. So all these years you've had a writing schedule, even with children, where you write from 5 a.m. to 7 a.m.? Yes, that's correct. Yes. And so for writing the correspondent during the pandemic, you have like a little space that you've carved out in that closet? Yes. We were living in this small rental and it was this sort of like 90s concept open bill. You know, no doors. Everything's, it's one room. The kitchen is the living room, is the study, which is sweet, I guess, in concept, but it's not great for working. And so there was this, it was this small space, but the bathroom was the size of a ballroom.

10:26I mean, I can't explain it. It was humongous. And so off the bathroom was this tiny closet. And I was, I was just fed up. And so I, when my husband was in work one day, I went and I took out all of his clothes and I shoved my small writing desk into the closet. it. And I sent him a photo and I said, this is what I did today. And he said, where are my clothes? I said, they're in May's room, our daughter. So that is, I wrote, and during COVID and writing this book, it went really well. It felt good. I felt good writing it. I wanted to get up. I wanted to get to the desk. I wanted to write the story.

11:04So I think I was setting my alarm for 4.30 and kind of really in the seat by five. And how did Sybil come to you? You've said that she came to you fully formed. Yes. Yeah, she did. I, I wanted to write a book in letters and that was kind of the starting point. I wanted to play with that, you know, the idea of that way of telling a story and, um, why? Well, I had read 84 Charing Cross Road. Okay. I had reread recently The Color Purple and I was just, I just enjoy that format. I, I enjoy the frequent page breaks. I just, I liked that. I just liked the way it felt. But with 84 Charing Cross Road, it felt like a small story.

11:44And I really wanted to tell a bigger story. And so I thought, I wonder how big of a story you can tell in letters. I wonder how far that can go. And so the next step was who? Who would it be? Whose story would it be? And then Sybil sort of came to me and she was herself. I knew her voice. I knew her. Just her nature. Had you known her from, did she represent a composite of other people or how did she come fully formed? I think she, there are traces of people I have known in her. There's a strong through line of my mother-in-law who has a very similar way of communicating. And I've just been surrounded by very interesting, wise women.

12:29And I think they're kind of all in Sybil. But she's not modeled after anybody in particular in your family. Well, no, not anybody in particular. I had met a woman. We were trying to buy this woman's house. And I wrote her a letter, this woman a letter. The house was not for sale. I wanted to buy the house. And so I wrote to the owner of this house, would you consider selling it? And she said yes. And so we went to her house to kind of walk through it. and she opened the door and she was this very put together sort of small older woman and she took us through her house and she was sort of visually who I saw as I was writing the story but I don't know her very well she wasn't Sybil wasn't modeled after her but that was did she sell you the house she doesn't she didn't it would be a better story okay so describe Sybil for us I would say Sybil is a woman afflicted with long grief and disappointment.

13:29And she is trying to be okay. And she's smart and she is direct. Yeah. And she airs, but she says she's sorry. And she sees everybody as equal, I think. would you say i mean so how long did it take you to write it i think i wrote it in less than a year wow and do you think she was always somehow living inside you waiting to be birthed this way that's a great question yeah there's something about her and the story the whole story of the correspondent which really is a culmination of so many things in my life the story feels really personal to me, you know, not experiences I've necessarily had, but experiences I've been close to or things I've heard, or even if the life experiences aren't the same, that the feelings are feelings I can relate to of grief and disappointment and fear and frustration and loss and, um, looking back and kind of rethinking what would I, what do I wish I would have done or what do I wish I would have said?

14:43And so there is something about her that, yeah, it evokes probably something very deep in me. I think her essence is distilled for us in one of my favorite passages from the book where she says, imagine all that you've said to another, all the commentary you've exchanged with friends over drinks, over the phone with colleagues and distant relatives, all the prattles sent quickly, mindlessly over email messages typed into your cellular phone. and really the sum of this interpersonal communication is the substance of your life. Relationships being, as we know by now in our old ages, the meat of our lives, but all of that is gone, vanished, and one day, Mr.

15:23Watts, you yourself will be gone. And then she says, imagine the letters one has sent out into the world. The letters received back in turn are like the pieces of a magnificent puzzle or a better metaphor, if dated, the links of a long chain. And even if those links are never put back together, which they will certainly never be, even if they remain for the rest of time, dispersed across the earth like the fragile blown seeds of a dying dandelion. I'm going, right, right, Sybil. 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's a very small thing to someone?

16:05Yeah. Yeah. You were writing that day. Yeah. That was a good writing day. I thought about that passage a lot because what remains of your life really after you're gone, what does letter writing allows us to say that conversation often does not? There's something about, to me, when I sit down to write a letter, and I'm a letter writer, that it's a thought. You would have to be to write this book. Well, it's a thoughtfulness. It's a thought of, you know, I want to say something to you, but I want to say it in a way that will sink in and be permanent. Yeah. Because when you... Will be remembered.

16:48Yes. Yes. And when you receive a letter, first of all, the experience of receiving a letter that is written to you, you know, going to the mailbox and opening a mailbox and seeing bills primarily and circulars and then a letter. I just don't think there's anything like that left in the world. I don't think there's anything that is this same feeling that that is. It feels like being loved. It feels like being remembered. And then it's permanent. It's an artifact. Yes. And I love that. And I think for me... Have you kept letters over the years? Yes, I have. And I have, you know, I just have some amazing letters.

17:28I have letters framed in my house. As do I. I do too. It's an artifact. And it's a piece of someone. It's like you received a piece of the interior of someone. and you get to keep it. I just think there's nothing like that. Yeah, I mean, I have boxes and boxes of letters from wonderful, wonderful people over the years and even just a thank you letter well-written, I will keep. Yes, me too. Everything I do begins with intention. You become exactly what you believe is possible. Especially the Oprah podcast. You're doing good, Aiden. I believe when people share their personal journeys with authenticity.

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19:43We have some of our readers who are excited to talk to you. We found Tyler on TikTok. Here's what he had to say about the correspondent. Sybil is lovely. I loved Sybil. From every letter that I read from the beginning of the book to the end of the book, I was just falling in love with Sybil more and more and she is this 70 year old woman who is sassy who is complex, who is intricate, who is brilliant who is deeply, deeply flawed she is so strong-willed, she is so dynamic she is so interesting, she is so smart that she doesn't let people walk all over her she doesn't let certain things play out how many other people would allow them to play out she is, she's going to speak her mind and she's going to get her points across My goodness, I love this book.

20:28I love Sybil and so profoundly good. And Tyler joins us from his bookstore, A Great Notion in Auburn, Massachusetts. Hey, Tyler, you say this is not the type of book you would normally pick up. How so? No, well, first of all, thank you for having me on. And so, no, I don't normally gravitate to epistolary novels, similar to what you said earlier, because I feel like format can be so limiting in terms of the depth of character and what we're able to feel for the character and how well we're able to empathize with the character and things of that nature. And so I found that this shook what my belief was right off the bat, right?

21:03The first few pages, I was already invested and I just loved Sybil. I found her so easy to empathize with and I loved everything that she revealed about herself. And so not only the letters that she wrote, but the letters that she received in turn kind of gave us that indirect characterization. So not just like here's Sybil displaying all of her thoughts, but what other people thought about her and kind of getting some of that anecdotal evidence as well through other people. So the fact that you were able to get that much from Sybil is, I think, just a master stroke of writing on your part, Miss Evans.

21:38Thank you. Bravo there. Thank you. But that kind of connects into my question where all of these these cast of characters that exist around Sybil, were they conceived by you for a specific purpose in order to help us to learn something else about Sybil? Because obviously, as the novel progresses, we see how vulnerable she allows herself to become. And I think that's super powerful. I love how smart readers are. I just love how smart readers are. um yes I mean you nailed it that's and that was the sort of the dance and the exercise of figuring out how to tell a dynamic story of a whole life because it sort of felt like well I can show you know she only writes to her best friend Rosalie we can only see this this one way kind of this one line of her life right and the things Rosalie knows and can speak to it's almost like I don't think anyone can see themselves fully.

22:39I don't think you can sort of understand everything. You need people around you to hold up a mirror and to understand yourself and to have relationships. It's relationships that's sort of what make us human. And so as I was writing the book, it was that. It was sort of, okay, you know, now I want to be able to show, I want to have part of the story of her life be her childhood. How can I bring her childhood into this? She's in her seventies. She's not just talking about her child. Yeah. And so then it was this idea of, okay, she has a relationship with this boy, Harry Landy and Harry who loves her and he doesn't realize it yet, but he does love her.

23:22And he sort of says, um, what were you like as a child? And And then she can sort of say, well, I was sort of this way and I was sort of this way. Oh, that's by design. Yes, that was all part of it. It's all by design. And, you know, that bringing in the man that she worked with was a way to talk about her career. When did you know this? Or did this come to you as you were figuring it out? I think it sort of came to me as I was going. I mean, I wrote it linearly. So I would sort of write a letter and have the response. And then I would think, you know, what's next? what needs to be built onto this?

24:00And we need to understand this. How, who could show this? Who could be the mirror for that? And then at some point I had to stop. You know, I had to say, that's enough. That's enough. There's enough people in this story. There's enough people. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Tyler, thank you so much. How did you come to read the book? You were saying this isn't normally, the epistolary format is not something you're normally drawn to. So why were you drawn to it? Were people telling you about it? Yeah. So it was kind of the talk of the town, so to speak, as far as like people coming to the bookstore and talking about it.

24:31I mean, that's the best part of owning a bookstore is people just talk about books all the time. And so, yeah. And another piece was that, you know, I'm a 36 year old white Latino man. And here's a 70 year old woman who, you know, we shouldn't have much much in common. and we shouldn't, you know, that connection there, but there was. And I think that kind of relatability and that universality of who Sybil was and how she is and kind of her, a lot of people said she was incorrigible or unlikable or whatever, and I disagree. I thought she was just, she is who she is, and she has such a complex history, and she's so intelligent that, you know, she kind of looks at people sometimes with the inane things that they do, and she's bothered by it.

25:12And I'm like, I can empathize with that. That's how I feel about people sometimes. And so this, you know, this kind of curmudgeonly woman, I felt myself relating to it. That's the beauty of books. That's the beauty of books. And I'll also say, you know, what makes her so, I think, important in the story is that when you're in your 70s, let me just tell you, as a 36-year-old man, when you're in your 70s, you know what you know. You know what you know. Period. Full stop. Okay? All right. Thank you, Tyler. Thanks, Tyler. I appreciate your time. Thank you so much. Our next reader, Polly, also owns a bookstore, Buxton Books in Charleston, South Carolina.

25:58Polly, tell us how you came to know Virginia. Hi, Virginia. Hi, Polly. Hi. It's so wonderful to be with you. I'm a little overwhelmed. We had the luck of having Virginia join us here at Buxton Books in Charleston. And we were so lucky because Virginia came here to the bookstore and we gathered about 25 people. And it was early on. And all of the booksellers loved the correspondent. I loved it. And the 25 people in the room loved it. Well, and Polly, half the people at the Buxton Books event were my family. Like my dad. And isn't that lovely? I mean, just to play a small role in this book, Getting Out There, we always say books connect us, and I just believe it's true.

26:47Did you have a question? Did you have a question or a thought? Well, I did, because when I was reading this, I actually have written only one letter to a celebrity in my life, one. And I didn't mail it, spoiler alert, but it was to Oprah. It was to you. So the fact that I'm talking to you about this full circle, it was in the 90s and I was a young mother in my 20s. So three decades ago, I wrote you this letter just in tears. It was, I remember sitting at the desk pouring out this letter of gratitude for you, but I never mailed the letter. So my question is, Virginia and Oprah, do we write letters?

27:28Do we need to expect a response? response and second part of the question is do we misunderstand maybe a lack of response or a lack of action on another person's part to be to be to be rejection yeah well you know what i'm glad you didn't say i wrote you a letter and i never heard from you because the truth of the matter is i thought that's what you're going to say and i wrote you a letter and i never heard anything and you know at the time we were just talking about this the other day my team and i in the 90s we still, it was before cell phones or anything, we had 10 people doing nothing but opening mail.