The Correspondent

Sybil Van Antwerp likes writing letters. When the novel starts in 2012 Sybil has turned 73 and we learn about Sybil and her life in the correspondence exchanged over the next seven years. Sybil lives alone. She is divorced and her husband returned to live in Belgium where he remarries. Sybil's brother lives with his partner in France. Sybil has little communication with her daughter who now lives in England. She occasionally sees her son and his family. Sybil has a good neighbour, Theodore, who looks out for her needs plus another man from Texas who is trying to get her attention. She also has a good friend Rosie, who regularly writes to her, plus a few other friends.

Sybil has kept copies of all of her correspondence received and friends such as Rosie have kept Sybil's letters. As well as writing to her brother and Rosie, Sybil writes to authors who have written novels that she enjoys, contacts a lecturer at the university about being able to attend occasional lectures and regularly exchanges letters with the young son of a friend who is having a difficult time.

In The Correspondent by Virginia Evans we learn of the sorrows experienced by Sybil in the past as she attempts to survive in a world where her eye-sight will be limited and she must adapt and learn to accept the friendship and help of others. This novel is told through Sybil's correspondence.