The Correspondent (2025)

Just finished reading The Correspondent. At its heart is Sybil Van Antwerp, a 73-year-old retired lawyer whose life unfolds through a series of letters. Intelligent, witty, fiercely independent, and deeply human, Sybil carries the weight of grief, regret, and a complicated relationship with her daughter, marked by years of misunderstanding and emotional distance.

Reading the correspondence is like peeling back the layers of an onion. With each letter, another piece of Sybil's story is revealed: unexpected relationships, hidden family connections, long-held secrets, and journeys that lead her to discover relatives she never knew existed. The novel also offers a powerful reminder that the decisions we make in our professional lives can have consequences far beyond the workplace, shaping not only our own futures but also the lives of others in ways we may never fully appreciate at the time.

What I loved most is its reminder that our stories are never finished. Even in her seventies, Sybil finds new family, new understanding, and opportunities for reconciliation and growth. A beautifully written and deeply reflective novel that reminds us it is never too late to confront the past, repair relationships, and discover new chapters waiting to be written.

One of the delights of The Correspondent is that Sybil and her friends are voracious readers, so the novel is filled with literary references. Here are some of the books most frequently mentioned:

Cutting for Stone — Abraham Verghese

State of Wonder — Ann Patchett

Murder on the Orient Express — Agatha Christie

Crossing to Safety — Wallace Stegner

Blue Nights — Joan Didion

Ulysses — James Joyce

Never Let Me Go — Kazuo Ishiguro

The Remains of the Day — Kazuo Ishiguro

The Orphan Master's Son — Adam Johnson

To Kill a Mockingbird — Harper Lee

Coraline — Neil Gaiman

The Satanic Verses — Salman Rushdie

Pride and Prejudice — Jane Austen

The Fellowship of the Ring — J. R. R. Tolkien

Inferno — Dante Alighieri

Mary Poppins — P. L. Travers

A particularly touching thread throughout the novel is Sybil's admiration for Joan Didion. She writes letters to Didion and often reflects on Didion's works, especially Blue Nights, which resonates deeply with Sybil's own experiences of grief, aging, and motherhood.

The Bookshop by Penelope Fitzgerald (1978)

"As the train drew out of the station, she sat with her head bowed in shame, because the town in which she had lived for nearly ten years had not wanted a bookshop."

This book broke my bookish heart.

The Bookshop of Yesterdays by Amy Meyerson (2018)

“The bookstore will never make you rich,” Lee said as he saw me out. “But if you watch your budget and find ways to bring in more folks, you’ll get so much more than fortunes out of it. I guarantee you that.”

 

The Reading List by Sara Nisha Adams (2021)

I call this book a letter of hope for those who are grieving, living with pain, and those who wake up each day simply trying to endure.

Mukesh Patel, in his 70s, is a recently widowed man struggling with the death of his beloved wife. Mukesh, who doesn't care much for reading, starts going through his late wife's copy of The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger, trying to fathom her thoughts during her last days. This book eventually connects him to Aleisha Thomas, a 17yr old working a summer job at the local library who is dealing with challenges at home. Mukesh, Aleisha, and a few others in a suburb in London, will be touched by a list of books, appearing out of nowhere, simply introduced by a line: "Just in case you need it."

And dear friend, here's the list of books, just in case you need it.
1. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
2. Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
3. The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
4. Life of Pi by Yann Martel
5. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
6. Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
7. Beloved by Toni Morrison
8. A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth

As Mukesh gently reminded Aleisha, "Please try to remember that books aren’t always an escape; sometimes books teach us things. They show us the world, they don’t hide it."

I enjoyed this book not only because I have a special penchant for those which lead me to other books but more so because of its poignancy in describing loss and grieving as something persistent and life-altering rather than something to be resolved.